


Winners Get Treehouses or Okay So We're Doing This

by crystalkei



Series: Winners [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Domestic, F/M, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-04-26 08:05:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4997089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Winners Don't Always Get Lucky Breaks. Treehouses, kids, and a mystery. </p><p>So maybe Clarke could now admit that treehouses were at the very least a fun idea. She could appreciate the whimsy of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Did you ever read Swiss Family Robinson?” Bellamy asked Clarke as he walked into the makeshift medical tent. Jackson raised his hand.

“I did!” he said and Bellamy clapped him on the back.

“Clarke, treehouses, Jackson agrees.”   
  
Clarke closed the chart she was writing notes in and turned to Bellamy (and a trapped by Bellamy Jackson.)

“I never read Swiss Family Robinson but talk to me about treehouses anyway.” Bellamy grinned.

“Fucking treehouses, we should be building treehouses,” he started. Clarke tried not to laugh while shooing Jackson back to work.  “No really, look, we can skip this wall building, we can avoid animals, it gives us an advantage in camouflage, we can be in the air! Plus, with that flooding that happened last week, what’s smarter, sandbagging things or tree houses?”

“Treehouses?” she asked shaking her head and smiling.

“Okay fine I should have started this pitch with Raven. I bet she’d get on board with treehouses.” Bellamy looked around quickly before pulling on Clarke’s belt loops to bring her hips to meet his. She looked up at him coyly before he kissed her.

“Treehouses?” she asked again as he started to trail his lips along her cheek, heading for her ear.   
  
“Treehouses,” he spoke against her skin, a hand sliding up under her shirt. “Like with retractable ladders and rope bridges from house to house, pulleys and levers, and…” Bellamy stopped when someone cleared their throat loudly at the other end of the tent.

“You two are hardly newlyweds,” Abby stated. Bellamy slumped and Clarke stepped away from him, but took his hand.

“We’ve had an incredibly slow day in here, charts are over there, have fun,” Clarke told her mother, dragging Bellamy out of the tent by the hand.

“Chancellor, quick idea, treehouses!” Bellamy threw over his shoulder as they headed back to their tent.

 

\--

 

It wasn’t an idea Bellamy was likely to stop talking about, especially since he’d talked about it the whole time they were having sex like it was a new form of dirty talk. Clarke threw his shirt at him as he still lie on the makeshift bed made of sleeping bags and blessedly on top, their crisp pale purple sheets that he really did give up a book to fit into the limited weight allowance of their bags bound for Earth.

“I’m going to go pick up the girls and then you can talk their ears off about treehouses, okay?” she said shrugging on her jacket and gathering her hair into a ponytail.

“Or I could go talk to Raven and Wick and figure this out because I fully intend to bring this to the council. Bunkhouses, cottages, trying to repurpose the drop ships, none of that is going to give us all the advantages of treehouses, Clarke.” Bellamy was bent over his boots tying them.

“Spring is almost done, the planting is going well, why not worry about this in the fall? It’s going to be so hot soon,” she said.

“We’ve gotten all the fences up for the fields, the planting has been uneventful, but it took up a lot of land, it’s efficient to get us up in the air. They call us Sky People, let’s get our asses in the trees so we live up to the name,” Bellamy added, standing up and heading out of the tent.

“How do you even suggest we build them?”

“Raven will figure that out.”

“She’s got a lot on her plate right now,” Clarke said as they started to walk towards Engineering’s area of the camp.

“But you know she’s going to love this idea, that’s why you’re following me instead of picking up the girls.” Bellamy said. Clarke huffed and Bellamy gave her a smug look, he wasn’t wrong.

 

\--

 

Raven sat at her work table huddled with a scrap of paper and a pencil. Bellamy waiting anxiously on one side of her and Clarke itching to take the pencil from her and sketch her own ideas. So maybe Clarke could now admit that treehouses were at the very least a fun idea. She could appreciate the whimsy of it.

“Don’t you two have kids to pick up?” Raven grouched. “I see you trying to get this pencil, Griffin, and this moron looking like an excited puppy, go get your kids, I like the idea and I’ll have some designs by tomorrow. Just leave me to think in peace.”

Bellamy’s eyebrows rose and he smiled, he offered his hand to Clarke for a high five over Raven’s back and she took it.   
  
“You two are ridiculous, get out of here,” Raven added but Clarke could see her trying to hold back her smile.

“There’s a council meeting on Friday, I want to have something to present then, like something really real,” Bellamy said as he walked backwards out of Raven’s work space. Clarke put her hand on his side, pushing him over a little so he avoided some piece of equipment.

“Girls,” Clarke said trying to redirect him. “Then we can tell Wells over dinner, is Octavia coming tomorrow or are we going to just meet her there?”

“We’ll meet her there,” Bellamy answered.

Tuesday was the day that they went to the nearby village so Clarke could offer medical services in exchange for the help of the village. Tondc had given them some goats, helped prepare and plant foods, and even gifted them the small scrap of land the settlement sat on. It was very generous but it was really because Octavia, Monty, and the other remaining six delinquents had been such helpful members of the community since coming down 10 years ago that the village leaders were willing to assist the Sky People.

“Miller’s coming, too.”

“Of course he is,” Clarke said with a sly smile.

“I don’t know what you’re referring to, Councilwoman Griffin-Blake, Guardsman Miller is a professional, only coming along to-” Bellamy stopped when May wrapped her arms around his middle after bolting from the school house, not a house at all, but instead one of the drop ships they’d come down on. “You’re supposed to wait for Mrs. Miriam to release you, Mayday,” he mock scolded, the words softened by the use of her nickname and the way he picked her up. Clarke noticed how long her legs were getting and realized it probably wouldn’t be standard practice to pick her up much longer. She was approaching six a little too quickly.

“May didn’t listen to Mrs. Miriam and she’s going to get in trouble,” Cora called out as she walked out of the ship with the teacher at her back. “She said you gotta wait but you didn’t and I bet tomorrow you end up on the yellow zone on the board.”

“Cut the tattling, Cora,” Clarke said taking the younger girl’s hand.

“I’m just being honest,” Cora said as May stuck her tongue out at her.

“You know what we should be talking about? Treehouses,” Bellamy predictably said, changing the subject.

“Like in Swiss Family Robinson?” May asked excitedly.   
  
“Yes! Like in Swiss Family Robinson. You think we can take apart some bits of the drops ships and use lumber to make a fun place to live up there?” Bellamy pointed to the leaves above them as he put May down in front of their tent. “Go drop your bags and we’ll get some dinner.”

“Does Grandma know about treehouses?” May asked causing Clarke to make a face.

“Let’s get the whole idea put together first,” Clarke said grabbing some paper and the small bag with drawing utensils in it.

By the time they sat down in the outdoor mess area with Wells and Miriam, Clarke already had an idea in her head, before even eating she quickly sketched it out and handed it over to Wells. Bellamy excitedly started explaining after he finished cutting the girls’ food the way they liked it.

“Someone took too much time reading Swiss Family Robinson,” Wells teased and Bellamy nudged Clarke.   
  
“You’re clearly the only person who hasn’t read it.” Clarke gave him a look.

“Miriam, have you read it?” she asked and proudly nodded when Miriam shook her head. “See, I’m not the only one.”

“There was a film though, right? I think I saw that, a shipwrecked family? Was there a water wheel type thing?” Miriam asked before picking up a piece of jerky and tearing it.

“Yes, there was a film and the water thing is probably not a doable amenity. I don’t know how realistic it is to have water in the treehouses,” Bellamy answered.

“Oh God, you’re telling everyone about this aren’t you?” Raven said coming to sit in between Wells and May at the end of the table. Bellamy nodded enthusiastically. “Here.” Raven put down three pieces of paper on the table with various designs of homes with foundations nestled in branches. Clarke, Bellamy, and Wells all took a sheet and studied them.

“You’re a genius.” Clarke looked at Raven with awe.

“Yes, I am. I’m gonna sleep on it because there’s got to be a way to get power up there, too. Water is totally doable, by the way, but solar panels will be tricky with the canopy of leaves and with the flooding last week here in the center of the settlement, I think it’s smart to get us up off the ground. I mean, Octavia will know for sure, but if flooding is typical for spring, we don’t want to be down here while it happens every year.”

“Plus she mentioned vaguely something about acid fog? We got interrupted before she could explain further, but I think it has something to do with radiation.” Bellamy took a minute to fill a cup from the pitcher on the table for Cora.

“Do you think it has something to do with the ‘Mountain Men’ they keep talking about?” Wells asked.

“If only they’d actually talk about them,” Clarke said with a frustrated sigh. “Lincoln always gets all vague and evasive when I try to ask him and Octavia is certainly tightlipped about it. I don’t know why.”

“I’ll try to ask her about it again tomorrow while you’re seeing patients,” Bellamy said between bites. “I’m sure there’s a reason they’re weird about it.”

“Sure, you’ll ask her, right after you spend three hours talking about treehouses.” Clarke raised her eyebrows knowingly and Bellamy shrugged.

 

\--

 

“I have to pee.” 

Bellamy grunted. Clarke elbowed him. Cora repeated, “I have to pee.”

“It’s your turn,” Clarke said, nudging him again.

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled pushing himself up and out of bed. “Get your jacket, Squirt, it’s chilly outside,” he told Cora as he slipped his boots on his feet. They’d been down here two months and were still mostly living in tents. Planting food and getting the settlement enclosed by the fence had been top priority. While they walked in the cool night air to the edge of the perimeter, his half asleep mind turned over ideas about toilets in the air. Bellamy waited, politely turning his head while the five year old squatted to relieve herself but nothing was happening. Since her birthday a few weeks ago she’d been getting modest about peeing with an audience so he turned more of his body away from her.   
  
“There’s something out there,” Cora said, he turned and saw her eyes wide, staring off into the forest beyond the fence. He glanced and dismissed her suggestion as that of a scared kid outside in the middle of the night.

“It’s probably just a squirrel. Do your thing so we can go back to bed.” Bellamy looked up at the low moon, guessing the time, it was probably around four in the morning.

“I can’t, Daddy, I’m too scared to go.” Bellamy sighed exasperated.

“I’ll stand over here, watching the fence, now you’re behind me, turn around the other way so you can’t see the woods. I’ll watch them, you just go pee, okay?”  
  
He moved into position and Cora did as she was told, he kept his eyes to the treeline, scanning up and down, side to side, methodically. Just as he suspected, he saw some branches moving with the weight of some kind of rodent, no monsters though. Cora was thoroughly shaken, so he picked her up when she was finished. She rested her head on his shoulders and held tight to his neck on the quick walk back to their tent, Cora was totally asleep by the time he opened the flap and went inside. He pulled off her boots and carefully tucked her into bed, he reached over and adjusted May’s blanket too. She’d thrown it off like she always did, even when she was a baby. Bellamy toed his own boots off in a smooth motion as he slid back into his spot next to Clarke. He threw an arm over her back and kissed her shoulder before rolling on his back to sleep.

“If we live in treehouses, it’s always gonna be your turn to take kids pee in the middle of the night. I am not going down ladders for that shit,” Clarke whispered, sounding more alert than he expected from someone who was just sleeping. She adjusted the pillow to be under her head instead of over it and turned towards him now, but her eyes were closed.

“Another couple of hours until sunrise but you want to talk about this now?” he replied stretching and wiggling his back to get comfortable.

“I’m not feeling so hot, sorry, go back to sleep.” Bellamy leaned on his side and ran a hand over her forehead. “I don’t have a fever and you’re not a doctor, dumbass.”   
  
“It’s so nice to hear these affirmations from you, how did I get so lucky to have such a lovely and supportive wife?”

“Fuck off and go back to sleep,” Clarke muttered and Bellamy snorted. “I love you,” she added before once again burying her head under the pillow.

“You too,” Bellamy said scratching her back as he drifted off to sleep. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big shout out to Ellie and Rachel for helping me get through this one.

Bellamy got the girls off to school and decided against hitting up Engineering before he met Clarke for their hike out to Tondc. Raven was already irritated with him but he was really excited about the treehouse idea. He looked up at the trees surrounding the settlement. They were close together, provided good shade. Tents had been set up around the base of trees so all he had to do was imagine those tents 30 feet in the air to get a good idea of what it might look like.

“I leave you for 45 minutes and you’re dreaming about treehouses, again,” Clarke said, coming up behind him with her medical kit. “Girls okay?”

“Yes, but Cora is still going on about May being on yellow instead of green so that’s a thing,” Bellamy answered as they started for the makeshift gate of the camp. “How was your early morning appointment with Mrs. Stepanski?”

“Sleeping on the ground isn’t doing her any favors,” she said shrugging. “But at least she’s been able to work fewer hours down here. I think she’s getting a cold though. I’m seeing a few colds and I don’t like it.”

“I’m sure if you tell that virus you don’t like it, it will go away, cower in the distance, generally scared of you and your doctor’s bag,” Bellamy joked.

Clarke side eyed him. “It’s warm now and we have enough to eat, but just wait until winter. People aren’t going to fare well, especially the elderly like Mrs. Stepanski.”

“She’s a tough old lady, you know, like your mom,” Bellamy said, and Clarke snorted. “Is that cold maybe what had you up this morning?”

“Uh, no,” she answered shortly. Miller joined them wordlessly as they walked out the gate.

“You okay now?” Bellamy asked her after turning to nod at Miller.

“Yeah, it was nothing.” She was brushing him off but he figured it had more to do with having an audience than anything else. “Miller, have you seen these sketches?” Clarke dug a sketch of a treehouse design out of her pocket.

“Not just me anymore, it’s a good idea and you like it,” Bellamy teased her and she rolled her eyes.

“Just making conversation. It’s a long walk.”

Miller snorted from behind them.

“Even Miller doesn’t believe that.”

“Let’s play the quiet game on this walk, huh?” Miller suggested.

“Did we just get the same treatment our kids get?” Clarke asked Bellamy, clutching at her chest.

“Wow, rude, Miller,” Bellamy added.

\--

Bellamy was still getting used to his sister being alive. He’d thought she was dead for ten years. He’d mourned and grieved, plotted revenge, married twice, had a kid, ended up with another kid, fought his way up from the bottom, then helped get everyone to the ground. If he’d done all those things, Octavia had likely done more, but he’d only heard the basics. That was why he kept using the excuse of bringing Clarke out to Tondc weekly; he shamelessly wanted time to reconnect and learn all the things he’d missed.

When the dropships had landed and the dust settled, the delinquents sent down by Diana Sydney were welcomed home. But not a single one of them wanted to stay with the Ark’s settlement. Octavia had a husband in Tondc. Monty was working on some project to get the entire village electricity; his parents saw him occasionally but it seemed like there was quite the rift between them. Four other delinquents had moved with other clans for various reasons years before, two more were like Octavia, settled into a family and didn’t want to come back. Octavia told him the last two had died. One upon landing, the other just a few years ago. She was vague on the how, but there were illnesses mentioned and Bellamy just assumed that was it. No use in wondering how someone he didn’t know had died.

“You’re late, big brother,” Octavia said, greeting them at the entrance to the village.

“We’re here the same time we are every week,” Clarke offered as Bellamy hugged his sister and then rubbed a hand over her head, messing up her hair.

“Mom taught us to always be early. If you’re on time then you’re late. What with inspections, we had to be early or ya know...in an airlock.” Octavia adjusted her hair and Bellamy cringed. She was still getting used to Clarke and it sounded like today she wanted to try to push the boundaries of comfort.

“O,” he started, but Clarke interrupted him.

“Guess we’ll be a little early next time.” Clarke was sincere, not flippant in the least, but she didn’t back down from the challenge Octavia threw out. “Is Nyko in the clinic?”

The villagers called it something else, but Clarke knew by now not to use whatever their word for it was. It often sent Bellamy on a long rant about language evolution, history, and the fact that it wasn’t a real language so much as lazy slang. Both Octavia and Clarke had lectured him about how offensive he sounded to their very generous neighbors so he kept his mouth shut while actually in Tondc. Sometimes he bit his tongue so much he tasted copper.

“Yeah, he’s there. Monty’s hanging out nearby too,” Octavia said, raising an eyebrow at Miller.   
  
“Uh, cool,” Miller replied easily.

Bellamy didn’t ask, but he knew. He and Miller had been friends a long time and he’d seen Miller flirt a bit back on the Ark, but this was getting serious. Bellamy made a note to prod him about it on the way back.

“Go scare some viruses with that bag of yours,” Bellamy said to Clarke as she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Have fun doing sibling things,” she threw over her shoulder as she and Miller walked towards the clinic.

“Can’t you be a little nicer to Clarke? I’m nice to Lincoln, and that guy scares me a little. He’s like four times my size. I mean, I’ve got better hair but,” he stopped when Octavia punched his arm.

“Sounds like that’s why you’re nice to him, genius.” Octavia led the way down a path around the perimeter of the village. “And I don’t _dislike_ Clarke.”

“I know it’s weird, and I know you’re mad because of who she is, but none of that matters down here.”

“Doesn’t it?” Octavia asked, picking up her pace a little.

“So, treehouses, huh?” Bellamy changed the subject.

Octavia made a face but rolled with it. “What about them?”

“Are there any people down here that live in them? I’m thinking it’d be a good idea for us to get off the ground. You said yourself the Grounders didn’t mind giving us that strip of land because it’s not exactly the best and it’s small, so it’s efficient for us to build vertically, not horizontally.”

Their walk ended at a clearing set up with a target at one end and all the equipment for Bellamy to practice using a bow and arrows. Octavia had been teaching him so that he could teach others at the settlement. Using arrows would be easier for hunting game and it would help conserve their ammunition.

“Don’t think there are any clans that live in trees. But I don’t see why that should stop you. That area is low-lying and the flood you guys had a few weeks ago won’t be the last.” She picked up the bow and took a few shots. Bellamy took the bow when she offered it to him. “You know my rule though, if that big brain Reyes figures out showers or toilets I want to be notified immediately. Running water would be the thing that brought me back.”

“Let me offer you a piece of advice: never have kids, because kids need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so until Raven gets that plumbing up and running you’d have to walk them outside to pee as if you were walking a dog.”

“You know we actually have dogs, they’re still around, can you believe that?”

“Please don’t tell the girls this, they’ll be begging for one and I might actually give in.”   
  
“Oh, you don’t want one. A guy yesterday lost two fingers to a dog.”   
  
“Definitely vetoing a puppy then.”

The siblings bantered on and off, bouncing from subject to subject for a few hours as Octavia adjusted Bellamy’s stance and his bow grip, and he practiced until his arms were sore.

“Can you bring the girls next week?” Octavia asked when they were almost back to the village.

“Tuesday is a school day, so no,” Bellamy answered, pulling out his canteen. “Why?”

“It’s getting warm enough to teach them how to swim. It’s a safety thing.”   
  
“Sure, a safety thing, you don’t want to spoil them and braid their hair and stuff?” Bellamy nudged her arm and Octavia might have blushed. He wasn’t sure.

“Yes, it’s a safety thing. There’s lots of water around here. And also I like them.”

“But not Clarke.” Bellamy gave her a look.

“I don’t hate Clarke, give it a rest, jesus,” Octavia said, punching his arm.   

They walked a little further and met Clarke as she came out of the clinic.

“So, how was it?” Clarke asked.

“Octavia wants to teach you and the girls how to swim,” Bellamy said with a sly look at his sister. She glared back.

“Really?” Clarke tilted her head. She wasn’t buying the bullshit.

“Yes,” Octavia answered, surprising Bellamy. “It’s a safety thing. There’s lots of bodies of water and I’d hate for someone to drown. Nerd here said we can’t do it next week because he doesn’t want the kids missing school. So when do the girls not have school?”

“Saturday, but he’s got a shift that day,” Clarke replied.

“I don’t want to teach _him_ to swim. He can drown for all I care,” Octavia said dryly. Bellamy stuck out his tongue at her. It occurred to him he was doing exactly the same thing May had done the day before. The thought didn’t deter his behavior.

“Okay, should we meet you here?”

“Nah, I’ll come to you, there’s a pond not too far from you guys. Shallow, should be warm enough. I’ll be there after breakfast.”

“Great!” Clarke smiled widely and Bellamy spared a quick glance at Octavia to thank her.

“Where’s Miller?” Bellamy asked.

“I’m here.” Miller appeared as if summoned, scrubbing his head. Miller didn’t really have much hair but that didn’t stop Bellamy from teasing him. “Freshly fucked look, huh?”

Miller narrowed his eyes but didn’t deny it. Octavia and Clarke both choked, trying to hold in their laughter.

“We should go if you want to be back in time to pick up your kids before Chancellor Grandma has to do it,” Miller said sharply.

“As long as you don’t mind the walk,” Bellamy teased. This time Clarke did laugh, but she covered her mouth to dampen it. He hugged Octavia and off they went.

About halfway home they had to stop. Miller had to pee. He offered to catch up to them but Clarke looked like she needed a break.

“So what’s going on?” Bellamy asked as Clarke leaned against a tree and winced.

“I’m fine.” She put a hand on her hip and leaned forward a little.

“Do you have cramps? Like menstrual cramps?” he asked, surprised.

“How would you even guess that?” Clarke said through clenched teeth.

“Octavia, she got her period well before she was thrown in lockup.” Bellamy picked up Clarke’s red bag from the ground. “You should take a muscle relaxant.”

“We really can’t spare them.” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “It’s no big deal. We’ve noticed a few women having them. The best we can figure out is that gravity on Earth isn’t the same as gravity on the Ark so the implants are shifting.”   
  
“Making them less effective?” Bellamy asked, his voice going up a few octaves in sheer panic.

“Calm down there, Daddy, the Chancellor checked mine this morning. Mrs. Stepanski wasn’t the only early appointment. It’s where it’s supposed to be. And even in space the implants meant that every year or so the uterus tossed out the old lining in favor of a new one.”

“Really? I was married for nine years and I never saw that happen to Roma once.”

“Maybe she wasn’t a pee with the door open kind of gal?” Bellamy acknowledged that was a reasonable explanation. It was possible he just hadn’t noticed. “And with some women it’s much more mild. It was just a day on the Ark. It wasn’t ever like this. I keep waiting for it to stop but it’s been two days so far.”  

“You know, I bet orgasms are helpful in relieving the pain,” he said, leaning in and putting his arm on the tree behind her.

“We’re not doing that right now while waiting for Miller to finish pissing.” But she smiled.

“Maybe later.”   
  
“You’re such a helpful guy,” Clarke said, patting his chest.

“I like to be useful. I’m a giver.” Bellamy slid a hand under her shirt and ran his fingers over the skin at her waist.

“Should I go on ahead or…?” Miller asked, back from his bathroom break.

“No, we’re ready,” Clarke replied as Bellamy gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. She bent down to retrieve her medical bag that he’d tossed down somewhere around the time he was suggesting getting her off in the middle of the forest.

“So Octavia hates me, doesn’t she?” Clarke asked, changing the subject as they started walking again.

“She’s trying not to. It’s just weird,” Bellamy said. “I’m not too thrilled with the idea that Lincoln exists.”

“Lincoln seems really devoted to her.”

“Damn right, he better be.”

“You’re embarrassing. It’s like you took lessons on how to be a big brother from every movie I’ve ever seen.” She shook her head.

“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”

“We’re never going to understand this weird sibling stuff, Miller.”

From in front of them Miller shrugged. “I’m Switzerland, don’t bring me into this,” Miller said putting his hands up in surrender, not even bothering to look back at them.

“I deal with your mother, so really this is only fair,” Bellamy said.

“Fair? No one likes my mom.” Clarke huffed. “And she doesn’t like anyone back.”

“Except Kane,” Miller cut in. Clarke and Bellamy both groaned.

“Now he has something to say.” She scrunched up her face in disgust.

“No one wanted to think about that, man, not cool,” Bellamy added.

“Just saying.” Miller finally looked back at them with a wicked grin on his face. He’d started to say something else when he tripped over a rock, then caught himself and adjusted so he didn’t end up with his face in the dirt, but the moment distracted everyone. When they looked back a man blocked the trail ahead of them.

He stood swaying, like he might fall over at any moment. He was dirty, wearing a combination of furs and regular clothes. He was far too bundled up for the warm spring afternoon and he was bleeding from his arm. He smelled horrible, not just the body odor of someone who hasn’t bathed, but the smell of sick. Before Bellamy could stop her, Clarke was running to the man’s side.

“I need help,” the man said as Clarke checked his arm.

“Give me the alcohol,” she said to Miller. He’d been the one carrying the larger medical stash she needed for the village. “I need to clean the wound, it’s jagged, stitches won’t be easy, it’s infected too. What’s your name?”

“They hurt me, can you help me?” The man’s words shook Bellamy into action, he started searching the trees for some danger that might be coming their way. But judging by the smell of the man, the way Clarke had already determined he had an infection, the wound was old. Still, he continued checking their surroundings and moving closer to Clarke and the man. Miller kept handing her supplies.

“Who hurt you, are they chasing you?” Bellamy asked sharply. “Did you come from the village? From Octavia’s village?”

The man didn’t answer and Bellamy did his best not to shake him for information. Clarke would be pissed if he did.

“We have to take him back with us. He’s not in good shape,” Clarke said, looking up at Bellamy, then she turned back to the man. “When did this happen? Who did this to you?”

The man just shook his head.

When Clarke had him cleaned up enough and the man still hadn’t given them more information, Bellamy pulled Clarke away. He nodded to Miller to watch the man and took Clarke a few paces away.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to take him back to the settlement.” Clarke looked at him, horrified.

“He’s hurt, he’s clearly been through some kind of trauma if he won’t speak to us. We have to take him home,” she argued.

“Home, exactly,” Bellamy said. “We shouldn’t bring this random dude who looks like shit, who could be a murderer, maybe they banished him for some crime, maybe he’s from a not-so-friendly clan and wants to see what we’ve got, Clarke. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Well I’m a doctor and we need to help him, this isn’t a discussion. I’m done listening to you sound paranoid, let’s go.” She tried to walk passed him, but he grabbed her elbow to stop her.

“Please, this feels bad. This feels wrong. Something is off.”

Just as he voiced it, the prediction came true. They heard Miller hit the ground, and the mysterious man was gone.

“Miller, hey, Nathan?” Bellamy tried.   
  
Clarke bent over him first, then Bellamy stood on the other side of him.   
  
“It’s just a black eye,” Clarke said trying to calm Bellamy’s nerves. Instead though it caused him to look around frantically for the missing man.

Clarke tended to Miller’s black eye and within seconds he was coming back to consciousness. 

“Welcome back,” Clarke said checking his pupils before helping him up.

“I considered fucking with you over the fact that a hurt, smelly punk knocked you out but I’m thinking that guy wanted us to underestimate him,” Bellamy said to Miller trying to put him at ease.

“Yeah, yeah he did,” Miller said brushing the dirt off of himself. “And he’s got a mean punch so just be glad you didn’t have to take it.”  

“He should be praying he never sees you again, I don’t imagine he’ll knock you down next time,” he said seriously.

Bellamy spent the rest of the walk back alert and with gun drawn. He’d never walked back from Tondc that way but he supposed there was a first time for everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've made a goal to get a chapter up a week at least, so hopefully you guys can stick with me. :) I'm over on tumblr at cupcakesandtv and feel free to drop in anything you'd be dying to see. I've got the main plots fleshed out but any cutesy domestic requests I may be able to fit in the story for you.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke flashes back to the Ark, Raven's got treehouse floor plans, Bellamy's a little paranoid. Miller makes a dick joke.

Clarke, Bellamy, and Miller made it back to the settlement before dark. The Chancellor did have to play grandma for a few minutes but she didn’t seem too put out about it today. They found her and the girls at the makeshift playground.

Bellamy hugged the girls and was dragged away to help them on some adventure with sticks and big rocks.

“Anything exciting happen? You’re here a little late,” Clarke’s mother asked.

“Being late seems to be a theme today,” she muttered.  “There was a man, a grounder. He was haggard and hurt, a mess really, I fixed him up as best I could and I wanted to bring him back here but something happened and he ran away.”

The Chancellor’s forehead creased as she digested the information. “Well, I guess if he needs something else he’ll come back here. The locals seem to know where we’re at.”

Clarke shrugged. She purposely gave her mom a vague retelling because she was sure the man was skittish for a reason. She didn’t agree with Bellamy or Miller’s opinions that he was malicious. Surely, he’d just been through some kind of trauma and didn’t know what he was doing. A person looking that rough couldn’t really be out to hurt people. He could barely move himself. His hair was matted, his face covered in dirt, he was a mess of a man.

They didn’t know enough about the grounders around them beyond Octavia’s village to be able to judge the man. The Chancellor thought so very little of the encounter she excused herself immediately with some comment about work and Clarke was left to watch the kids play.

Soon enough the girls came rushing at her.

“We’re starving!” May exclaimed.

“I hope there’s something else besides protein mash because I’m tired of it,” Cora said. This was a typical complaint for her. Every single night she whined about it. But to her credit, they were eating a lot of it. The vegetables wouldn’t be ready for months and the mash was brought down from the Ark because it was compact, dehydrated, and full of vitamins.

“I’ve got to go to work but have a good dinner. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Bellamy explained to the girls. Then he turned to Clarke and kissed her quickly. “It’s a swing shift so I’ll be back late tonight.”

“I’m mad at you for being paranoid,” Clarke said.

“And I think you’re wrong about him. He’s bad news and I’m glad he didn’t come back with us," Bellamy said. He paused before softening his tone. "I love you."

“You too,” Clarke responded, matching his tone.

**  
  
**

_Three Months Ago_

__

_Clarke quietly opened the door to the apartment. It was late and she didn’t want to wake anyone but she found Bellamy organizing the kitchen cupboards._

_“The girls are asleep in our bed. Medical rough?” he asked, halting in his task to face her._

_“We discharged the last patient from the accident so I was doing all the paperwork,” Clarke explained as she took her boots off._

_“Did you eat anything?”_

_Clarke nodded. “Someone brought us food. I thought you’d be in bed.” She noticed his ratty t-shirt he liked to sleep in and his soft pants, it reminded her that she wanted to be in her comfy clothes._

_“Stayed up to talk to you,” Bellamy said, reaching for her hand and pulling her to the couch._

_“I’m exhausted and I already told you, you don’t have to keep apologizing,” Clarke argued as she sat on the couch next to him. She leaned her back against the armrest to face him._

_“I should apologize for the rest of my life. You deserve that. You didn’t deserve what I put you through.” Bellamy looked at her sincerely. He reached for her foot and started working his fingers into her heel, then sliding along and massaging the instep, then the balls of her feet._

_Clarke closed her eyes, something between a sigh and a moan escaped her lips, and she could practically hear Bellamy smile._

_“I have my own shit too you know, I shouldn’t have gone on about this only being temporary. It’s how I tried to keep my distance from you. If I reminded myself that it wasn’t long term, it was easier to ignore the way I felt about you.”_

_“But I’m the one that really fucked up,” Bellamy said, he was trying for light but she heard him clear his throat, making the words sound more raw. He kept rubbing her foot as he went on. “I should have told you how I felt. I shouldn’t have held back. And then the deeper I got in the hole, the harder it was to admit I was wrong. I couldn’t dig myself out.”_

_She opened her eyes now, she needed to see if the vulnerability in his voice matched his eyes. It did._

_She moved her foot and scooted herself across the couch so she was on her knees in front of him, almost in his lap. She took his face in her hands but he wouldn’t look at her._

_“Hey,” she said, moving her head to catch his eyes. Bellamy finally looked at her, this time his jaw was set._

_“We’re not always going to agree, sometimes we’re gonna be mad at each other,” he said, taking her hands, moving them away from his face and holding them._

_Clarke smiled. “My dad used to always say the old ‘never go to bed angry’ wedding advice was bullshit. Sometimes you go to bed angry.”_

_“He probably went to bed angry more often, being married to your mother,” Bellamy said with a wicked grin, causing her to laugh. The joke lightened his mood, too. “I just want to promise you that I’ll tell you how I feel, even if we disagree, but I’ll also tell you that I love you. I want this. I’m willing to work for it because it’s worth it. Because instead of before where I was married for convenience, I’m choosing to be married to you. I want to be married to you because I love you.”_

_Clarke didn’t know what to say. It was the first time he’d actually verbalized his feelings. She’d thought it, but hadn’t actually said it out loud either. She swallowed, mustering her courage, and let the words come out._   
  
_“I love you, too. And I want to be married to you.”_

_“Can I kiss the bride now?” Bellamy asked with a goofy look on his face._

_“What is that supposed to mean?” Clarke laughed._

_“This feels a lot more significant than our wedding day.”_

_“Our wedding was paperwork in my mom’s office. It doesn't take much to be more sentimental and romantic.”_

_He kissed her, pulling her fully into his lap. Clarke went easily, leaning into him, putting her hands into his hair._

_“Why did we wait so long to kiss? You're a good kisser. This skill was surely wasted on boring Curtis.” Each sentence was punctuated with a kiss._

_“It was an unwritten rule. No kissing,” she recalled, barely pulling away from his lips._

_“Oh right, what were we thinking?” Bellamy kissed along her jaw, his arms tightening around her, pulling her closer to him._

_“I can't even remember.” Clarke lifted his chin to guide his lips back to hers. “But it was one of our worst ideas.”_

_“Truly.”_

**  
  
  
  
**

“You two are disgusting.” Raven walked up as Bellamy walked away.

Clarke rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But we’re fighting so there’s that.”

“Your fighting looks a lot like you want to make out.”

“What’s making out?” May asked Raven.

Raven smiled wide and Clarke shook her head sharply and made a noise in the back of her throat.

“I bet you Raven can’t win a race against the two of you to the galley table,” Clarke challenged. Raven made a face but when the girls took off she couldn’t help but run after them in an attempt to win. Clarke walked after them, happy with her avoidance of the question.

“I win!” May said, jumping up and down at the table where the food was laid out for everyone in the settlement.

It was different than back on the Ark. They’d suspended the ration system in favor of everyone getting something to eat. It was important to survive down here and food and water were a little easier to come by.

“Don’t do that again,” Raven said to Clarke, huffing from exertion.

“You’re the one that brought up something I didn’t want to explain,” she said. “Consequences and all that jazz.” Clarke winked.

Raven rolled her eyes this time. “Sometimes your mom level is annoying.”

Clarke shrugged unapologetically.

“So, treehouse designs,” Raven said, changing the subject. “I’ve got them ready to be presented to the council but you can’t let Bellamy do it. He’s gonna fuck it up. He’s way too excited.”

“I figured I’d let him start and when he starts to flounder I’ll take over,” Clarke said as she helped the girls put food on their plates, while also balancing her own. “Then I’m the hero and we might actually get somewhere on this idea.”

“Glad you’ve thought this through,” Raven said, filling her own plate.

When they sat down, Clarke spent a few minutes helping the girls get set up to eat while Raven pitched in by grabbing cups of water.

“Raven, you’re a good mommy helper. You should be a mommy,” Cora said, eyes beaming with appreciation.

Clarke started to say anything to cut off this awkward line of conversation but May jumped in, making it worse. “She has to be married first.”

“Some people aren’t married and still make families,” Clarke offered, it was the best she had on the fly and she hoped Raven wasn’t bothered by it.

“And some people probably won’t ever get married because their soulmates died a long time ago on the Ark,” Raven answered the girls in a tone entirely too upbeat to be discussing a dead lover.

“I didn’t know that,” Clarke blurted out.

“This might come as a surprise, but you don’t know everything about me, friend,” Raven answered, still cheerful and unfazed. “It’s no big deal. And it’s been like a thousand years.”

Clarke sat, trying to control her face when all she wanted to do was know more about this mystery ‘soulmate,’ a word that she’d never heard Raven utter. Raven knew Clarke too well and thankfully leaned towards her, lowering her voice, “Soulmate is a bullshit concept but let me have some fun with your kids for fuck’s sake.”

“But,” Clarke started but Raven interrupted.

“He floated almost 10 years ago. I’m so far over it I sometimes forget it ever happened. Besides, who was there on the Ark? Plenty of people to fuck for fun…”  
  
Clarke cleared her throat.

“Present company excluded.”   
  
“No, I get it, I know what I was to you,” Clarke teased.

“Give it a rest, Princess.” Raven smiled despite her tone.

\--

 

Bellamy finished all the paperwork for the day, he filled out an incident form on what happened to them on the way back from TonDC and even reworked next month’s schedule. Kane had given him more responsibility since they’d come to Earth and that was fine with him. But tonight was just a regular gate shift and he was the supervisor on duty. He never really felt the need to carry the rifle on his shoulder during these shifts but tonight was different.

After the day’s events he was more alert. He checked the treeline often and the feeling in the pit of his stomach hadn’t subsided. Bellamy knew something bad was going to happen. Lots of bad things had happened in his life. Sometimes there was a moment when he knew, a feeling crawling around, pushing out, permeating. The day Octavia was caught he had the feeling but he ignored it, desperately trying to carry out his plan and make something good happen for her. Since then he knew never to ignore the feeling. His gut didn’t lead him astray. When that gnawing feeling sunk into his stomach he knew something big was going to happen.

“So I’ve narrowed it down to two designs and I think we’re gonna want to use them both due to the size and shape of the trees. It’s going to give us more leeway when we’re building,” Raven said, startling him out of his thoughts.

“What’s the point of having treehouses if they’re cookie cutter? I’m all about having some variety, hell, let’s put four designs up.” He easily moved into the conversation, happy to have something to distract him from his impending doom.

Raven sighed, exasperated. “Let me design the things, every family can put their own spin on them as they work.”   
  
“You think families can do their own?” Bellamy asked, excited at the prospect, not only for his own family but for other families. Working on the treehouses would be great for overall morale in the community and it would make the work go quicker.

“Have you ever heard of prefabricated materials?”

“You know this is not my area of expertise.” Bellamy shook his head.  “I can’t even build a bookshelf without explicit instructions.”

“Our greatest idea for a settlement came from a guy who once nailed his hand to a wall.”

“Never going to live that down am I?” Bellamy asked.

“No, but we might follow it up with ‘but he thought up treehouses so he’s not all bad,’” Raven said, gesturing for him to follow her into the guard shack where there was a small table for her to lay out the plans.

“Here’s hoping that catches on,” Bellamy said, crossing his arms as he stood over the table looking down at her blueprints.

“So the idea is that we’ll do most of the construction on the ground. There will be teams putting foundations that are basically platforms in the trees. Then we’ll take the prefabricated parts: walls and roofs, ladders and small sets of stairs and we’ll use a pulley system to get them into the trees and then just assemble the homes on the platforms. Get it?”

“That’s genius.” He smiled at her before going back to study the floorplans further.

“I _am_ a genius, I’m glad you’ve accepted that,” Raven said easily. “This is just for the basic structures. There’s work to be done getting a power grid set up and I’ve assigned Wick the thrilling job of studying every kind of plumbing he can get his hands on so we can get water and, more importantly, toilets up there.”

“Delegation is key to getting these things done,” Bellamy deadpanned. He popped his head out the door of the shack and looked into the trees, trying to imagine Raven’s designs in the canopy. “We’re gonna need good railings on the walkways and balconies. This has to be safe for toddlers learning to walk so no space between the slats. Solid railings.”

“I think we can do some space between the slats but calm down, we’ll make it small enough that no kid is getting their head stuck,” Raven replied, seeming to read his mind.

Bellamy was feeling distracted and calm for the first time in hours. He was excited about the treehouses because they were actually going to happen. He knew this was something they could do, and goddamit he was going to live in a fucking tree.

But his mood came spiraling down quickly.

Branches shaking and snapping twigs had Bellamy twisting around, back to the outside treeline, his eyes searching in a grid. He pulled his rifle off his shoulder and aimed it at the trees.

“Whoa there, soldier,” Raven said, shocked by his behavior.

He absently heard her rolling up her blueprints but he kept checking the patch of forest in front of him before picking up the radio.

“Gate 2, have your eyes seen anything hinky?”

“Hinky?” Raven asked with a snort.

“Gate 1, everything here is copacetic,” a voice crackled over the radio. It didn’t calm Bellamy though.

“Oh my god, that’s some nerdy code you guys are running.” Raven shook her head.

“Code is useful.” Bellamy answered without looking at her, still entirely focused on searching out anything that might have made the noises he heard.

“It was probably just a squirrel.”

Raven’s words shook something loose in his brain. He picked up the radio again as his heart started to pound. “Guard Building, send an alternate to Gate 1 please.”

“What is going on?” Raven asked, confused.

“Stay here until the alternate gets here.” Bellamy started to jog off.

“I’m not exactly going to be helpful guarding this gate, Blake, what is wrong with you?” she shouted after him, but he ran faster towards their tent.

Just as he got there, rifle still slung over his shoulder, Clarke was coming out of the tent.

“What are you doing?” Clarke’s eyes were wide with surprise.   
  
“Did you put the girls to bed?” he asked frantically, already heading into the tent.

“Just now, don’t go in there, it’s gonna-”

He didn’t hear the rest of her statement because he was already inside. He leaned over Cora’s cot and gently shook her shoulders.   
  
“Squirt, wake up,” Bellamy said in a voice just above a whisper. When she started to open her eyes he smiled. “Hey, do you remember last night when you were scared to pee?”

“There was a squirrel,” Cora said, her voice tiny.

“I know what I said, but what did you see?”

“A squirrel?” she replied, unsure.

“This isn’t a test, Cora, what did you see before I told you it was a squirrel? You were really scared. You said there was something in the trees, what did you see? Did you see the branches moving or did you see bushes rustling, did you see a person?”

Cora shook her head, she closed her eyes and rolled over. Bellamy grunted, he was going to wake her up again, if he took her outside in the cooler air maybe she’d wake up and remember what she saw. He reached out to nudge her shoulder but Clarke stopped him.

“Bellamy!” she whispered harshly. “Don’t you dare, she’s tired and you’re panicked about monsters that aren’t real.”

“Are you afraid of monsters, Daddy?” May said, sitting up and scrubbing her eyes.

“Go back to sleep, May. It’s nothing.” Bellamy tucked her back in and walked out of the tent.

He ran back to the gate, embarrassed, before Clarke could say anything else.

 

\--

 

“You’re lucky I was alternate, Cockbert would have ratted your ass out for leaving Reyes here. How bad did you have to piss?” Miller asked as Bellamy made it back to Gate 1.

“His name is Cuthbert, I know you think he’s a dick but you gotta stop calling him Cockbert,” Bellamy chided Miller.

“If I call him ‘dick’ I’ll get in trouble, if I call him Cockbert, he just thinks I don’t know how to read,” Miller said with a shrug.

“You’re very smooth, no wonder Monty wants a piece of you,” Bellamy snapped back.

“I’m gonna ignore that because we both had a bad afternoon and you’re still agitated.”

“Did you see anything in the treeline? Since you’ve been standing here?” Bellamy asked, ignoring Miller’s comment.

“Nah, man, quiet as space.”

“Not exactly but thanks. You should go check to see if Gate 2 needs a break now. I’ll be good here the rest of the shift.”

Miller nodded and headed towards Gate 2.   
  
It wasn’t cold anymore. Spring brought a comfortable temperature during the day with just a little chill at night. Bellamy was thankful for the crisp air. He needed to clear his head and get his shit together.

Even if the mystery man from this afternoon was out there, he was just one guy, he was injured, he would be no match for Bellamy and his rifle. And Bellamy would shoot if that guy appeared again. No hesitation. But as the next two hours passed, he felt more ridiculous about his outburst earlier. They were surrounded by all kinds of animals, insects, fucking glowing plants. The gut feeling had kept Clarke safe earlier. He pulled her away from the man and Miller got a fist to the face. They didn’t bring him back to the camp. That was all the gut feeling was meant to do. It could dissipate now. It would, surely, once he got some rest.

When he made it home, as expected, Clarke was asleep. He stripped off his shirt and his pants and slid into the faded purple sheets that really needed to be washed. Maybe when Octavia took them all swimming the sheets could at least get a rinse.

Bellamy laid on his side and ran his fingers along her arm. She was on her stomach, as usual, but she hummed low and rolled onto her side, her back against his chest, nestling her ass into his crotch. He groaned, regretting keeping his boxers on, but this wasn’t about him. His fingers skimmed across the skin of Clarke’s side and then down to her belly button. Bellamy went to work kissing Clarke’s upper arm, he pushed her shirt sleeve up with his nose and trailed more kisses up her shoulder.

“The girls have been sleeping like rocks tonight so I expect one of them to get up and interrupt us any minute.” Her voice was rough and low, her words coming out lazy as she woke more fully.

“I better work quick then,” Bellamy said, moving to lick the shell of her ear as his hand moved down from her belly to the elastic of her panties. Clarke shivered but again ground her ass against him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before dipping his fingers into her.  
  
“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said as she gasped. He kissed the back of her neck. “I was just so sure something bad was going to happen,” he whispered against her skin, the heel of his hand rubbing against her clit while he moved two fingers inside of her.

“S’fine,” she managed, her breathing ragged now.

“It’s not, I just wanted to make sure you were safe.” His breath caressed her ear. “Bad things always happen to me,” Bellamy said seriously but Clarke was practically bucking against his hand now, desperately reaching for that shockwave. “I can’t let bad things happen to you, too.”

He leaned over further, he kissed the corner of her mouth and she turned more to kiss him fully. He crooked his fingers, his thumb coming around to flick at her clit steadily and he felt her clench. Her breath was short now so he kissed her slowly, easing her through the pulsing repercussions.

She reached for his hand and pulling it up, covering his fingers with hers, she brought their hands to her sternum and held them there. Bellamy rested his head on the pillow next to her, waiting for her to catch her breath.

“It’s been too easy down here,” she said finally. “You’re scared because you always thought it would be dangerous and it wasn’t, with Octavia and Monty and …” Clarke trailed off and it took a minute before he realized she was fighting sleep.

His knee brushed her thigh, trying to gently prod her. She made a grumbling noise and then seemed to come back. “I know, you just want everyone to be safe. Just don’t get all obsessive, okay?”

Bellamy scooted just a little closer and kissed the back of her neck. “I’ll try.”

“Also you should probably talk to someone about working through this crazy superstitious streak you have, luck is just coincidence,” she said with a scoff before finally drifting off to sleep.

Bellamy wanted to believe the words Clarke said. But in his gut he felt the familiar dull throb.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working to get a chapter out weekly. :) Thanks for all your lovely comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Last week was a rough one on a personal level so I sucked and didn't get my goal of updating weekly. BUT I'm back to the goal and will do my best to keep up. On Sunday I put up a few lines of this chapter on my tumblr because i felt bad for missing the deadline so if you're into that you're welcome to keep tabs on me over there at cupcakesandtv.tumblr. 
> 
> I love your comments and I hope you guys are enjoying this!

“We can’t spare the supplies or the manpower for this frivolous project,” Sinclair argued.

Clarke could tell Bellamy was restraining himself, almost physically at this point. He and Sinclair never got along. She put a hand on Bellamy’s knee and he side eyed her. She gave him a weak smile before turning her attention to Sinclair and her mother.

“Raven wants to do a test run with five houses,” Clarke explained, she squeezed Bellamy’s knee before he could butt in. “Let’s do five, see how it goes.”

The Chancellor took a deep breath, she looked at every council member before settling on Bellamy with just the slightest glare. No one else in the room would see it, but Clarke knew. Abby Griffin regretted giving Bellamy the little helps to get him to where he was now. It actually made Clarke a little giddy. She so enjoyed pissing off her mother.

“You can do three houses. And you can’t have any manpower.”   
  
“Three?” Bellamy hesitated for half a second, he didn’t come out of his seat but she felt his muscles flex, he almost did.

“One for your family, one for Wells and Miriam, I assume?” The Chancellor looked to Wells and he nodded in agreement. “And Reyes can have the third. If your project fails, I want all the materials returned and repurposed. If it goes well, we’ll consider it further for the settlement.”  
  
“Five is a better measure of-” Bellamy tried but Wells jumped in this time.

“We’ll make do, Chancellor, thank you.”

\--

“So?” Raven asked, she was sitting on the bench near the playground. Miriam was next to her, since the meeting was in the evening, they’d been tasked with childcare. Raven didn’t mind, it gave her something to do besides pace outside the council room while the meeting went on.

“Three,” Clarke broke the news as gently as she could.

“What the fuck? How am I supposed to find out if I can build a connected platform when there’s only three houses? Just by math I know three will work. I need at least five to really test my plans! I told you that.” Raven stood up, arms swinging wildly, immediately Clarke could see the wheels turning in her mind.

“It’s the best we could do,” Bellamy said. “Also we get no manpower.”

“This is impossible!” Raven shouted, everyone else cringed.

“And any supplies have to be repurposed and recycled if we can’t do it,” Wells added.

Raven muttered under her breath then turned to Miriam. “Please tell me you know how to hold a hammer, because I’m working with two Chancellors’ kids who have soft hands and one guy who nailed his hand to a wall.”

Miriam smiled. “My dad was in maintenance.”

“Oh, thank god.”

A chorus of offended “hey” rang from Wells, Clarke, and Bellamy, but Raven ignored them. Instead putting her arm around Miriam.   
  
“So, we need a game plan,” Raven said, turning back to the others.

“Wells and I are going to go to the field, there’s soccer, so tell us our marching orders so we can go,” Bellamy said.

Raven laughed, a full belly laugh, head thrown back, ponytail swinging. “Nope, boys, we’ve got shit to do. No soccer, I’m not playing tonight and neither are you.”

  
Wells frowned and Bellamy’s shoulders sagged.

“Ignore the whiny boys,” Clarke said dismissively. “Building the pre fab stuff is the first step, right?”

“Tonight, we’re scouting trees before the sun goes down.” Raven tilted her head towards the fence where a patch of seven trees stood. “Tomorrow we start on the platform. Who’s working and who isn’t?”

“I’m working and Clarke’s going with Octavia but I can enlist Miller to help,” Bellamy answered.

“When you get off, you can start on the pre fab stuff. We’ll need,” Raven started to tick off her fingers, doing math. “We’re gonna need 32 walls and eight roofs.”

“You’re going to make me regret treehouses, aren’t you?” Bellamy asked.

“Probably, but you’ve sold the idea, dumbass. Now I’m in too deep. I’m gonna make this shit work if I have to do it myself. Which is basically the premise now.”

Clarke appreciated Raven’s determination and smiled sympathetically at Bellamy before they all followed her towards the trees where they’d likely be spending the rest of their spring and summer.

**  
  
**

\--

“Octavia is going to be here soon,” Bellamy nudged Clarke’s shoulder. He was already dressed and he offered her a cup of tea as she opened her eyes. “The girls are outside already. I took them to get breakfast and I’m going to go in a minute. But I wanted to remind you to take the pistol with you.”   
  
She groaned as she pushed herself up to sit on the bed and take the cup. “Don’t be paranoid.”   
  
“There’s nothing paranoid about you having a gun with you while you’re out in the forest with our kids out in some spot you’ve never been, there could be animals,” he tried.

Clarke knew this was about the mystery man but she decided to accept his thin excuse instead of argue.  

“Octavia is very capable but fine.” She burned her tongue on the hot liquid and sucked in air.

“Try not to have too much fun,” Bellamy said with a grin.

He knew that Octavia and Clarke were going to run out of small talk 15 minutes into their hike. Clarke pushed on his knee.

“Jerk,” she muttered. “I’m going swimming and you’re going to work so ha! I’ll be having more fun than you.”   
  
“Sure.” He offered his hand to help her stand up, she took it and groaned again.

“Built in bed frame in the treehouse, I’m telling Raven that needs to go in the plans. Sleeping on the ground is the worst.”

“She’ll make you build it yourself.”

Clarke leaned into Bellamy’s chest and sighed. “Well, she can’t let you build it. You’ll ruin it.”

He laughed into her hair. “Traitor. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’m the one that pulled the nail out of your hand so you could have a cool scar like Jesus Christ.”

“It’s too bad radical Christianity died out, I could play some cruel tricks on people.”

“You’re a horrible human being,” Clarke said before pressing her lips together so she wouldn’t laugh.

Before Bellamy could respond the girls came rushing in.   
  
“Mr. Wells says he needs you, Daddy,” May said.

Bellamy moved away from Clarke, his brow furrowed. “Guess I’m going to work now,” he said to her. “Be safe today.”

**  
  
  
  
**

\--

Clarke was ready when Octavia showed up. She had a bag full of extra clothes for the girls and a towel, some snacks, water, and the gun Bellamy asked her to bring. She felt ready for whatever might happen. But she was dreading the conversation. After the small talk about the weather Clarke asked about a few patients she saw in TonDC regularly. That only padded her discussion material by a few minutes. So they walked in silence for a while before Octavia spoke up surprising Clarke.

“So, you were married before right?”

“Yep,” Clarke answered, keeping her eyes on the girls running in front of them. It was a good enough distraction to avoid making eye contact with Octavia.

“What was he like?” Octavia asked hesitantly.

Clarke smiled and shook her head. “Boring.”

Now Octavia laughed. “So you didn’t love him?”

“No. I mean, I was vaguely fond of him. In the way that you get used to a piece of furniture being in a certain spot in your house. But no, I didn’t love him.”   
  
“But you married him?”

“At my mother’s not so subtle suggestion.” Clarke shrugged.

“God, why?”

Octavia’s question was harsh but Clarke wasn’t put off by it. Raven had sounded exactly the same when Clarke told her she was going to marry Curtis.  

“What else was I gonna do?”

“Wait, didn’t you marry my brother because of your mom?”

“I got lucky on the second time around.”

Octavia shook her head and laughed.

“What happened to your boring husband? Was he floated like Bellamy’s first wife?”

This time Clarke lowered her voice, watching Cora run and play ahead. “No, he got sick,” she explained. “He died about two years ago.”

“And you married Bellamy what, six months ago?”

Clarke hummed, thinking. “Nine months ago.”

“Did you have a big ceremony?”

“No, it was just us signing our names on the dotted line. No ceremony to it. What do Grounders do?”

“I wore a dress, walked down an aisle, it was all very pre bomb Earth, really. Felt like old movies we used to watch,” Octavia explained, the smallest ghost of a smile like she was remembering a fond memory.

“No weird slicing open your palms or sacrificing animals?” Clarke asked honestly.

Octavia snorted. “That’s some biblical bullshit, nah. It’s more traditional. But they don’t call it marriage. It’s partnership.”   
  
“I like that.”

“But really, you just went along with your mom demanding you marry someone, not once, but twice?”

“My relationship with The Chancellor is complicated. She’s not a good parent, but every now and then she tries,” Clarke said with a sigh, pushing hair behind her ear. It was difficult to explain to people why she did what she did in reference to her mother. And sometimes she didn’t even know herself. “Both times she thought she was helping.”

“I can relate to the complicated relationship. My mom was…” Octavia seemed to be treading carefully.

“I won’t tell Bellamy anything we talk about if you don’t want me to,” she offered, trying to make Octavia comfortable to speak her mind.

“This is pretty good gossip, you might not be able to keep it to yourself,” Octavia said, a small smile on her face.

“I can, I swear, you want me to pinky promise on it? We take that very seriously.”

“No, keep your blood oaths to yourself. I’m good.” Octavia crinkled her nose. “Let’s just say that I also have a complicated relationship with my mother, and she’s been dead more than 10 years so clearly I’m still processing.”

“We can start a club, Daughters of Moms Who Are Questionable Parents, I nominate you for president, I’m willing to be vice president and secretary.”

“Awesome. Weekly meetings to work through the shit should be useful.”

“Agreed,” Clarke said with finality.  

An awkward silence followed. Clarke turned again, focusing on the girls instead of the lull in conversation. She felt like they’d connected for a moment, but she never could tell with Octavia.

“But you love Bellamy, right? Not like before with the boring guy?”

“Yes,” Clarke blurted out. She closed her eyes feeling silly. She cleared her throat and started again, “Yeah, it was a constant battle when we got married. We both spent a lot of time pretending we didn’t like each other, but we finally gave that up and we were both happier. I love how sharp he is, how he’s concerned about everyone, he once said that your heart was too big for the box it was kept in, but his is just the same. He wants to fix everyone’s problems and he wants things to be fair and-”   
  
Octavia cut her off, “This is all so sweet I’m gonna throw up. You can stop now.”

“Sorry,” Clarke responded sheepishly.

“This isn’t some kind of a test,” Octavia said, giving Clarke a sympathetic look. “I just wondered...since you called your first husband furniture.”  

“I should be kinder to his memory, you probably think I’m cruel.” Clarke was embarrassed again. The conversation took every chance to turn awkward.

Octavia made a noncommittal noise but whatever else she might have said was lost to the girls shrieking happily ahead of them.

“Mom, the water!” Cora shouted.

“Can we get in right now?” May squealed.

Octavia rushed up and grabbed May from behind. “Watch out for sea monsters!” she cried and pretended like she was going to throw her into the water.

Laughter spilled out of the girls in the most joyful tones. Clarke soaked it in. She was so content and happy, so relieved to be able to give her kids a better life than the one she’d had in space, where there were no pools of water, grass, or blue skies.

As Clarke helped the girls get their shoes off and strip down to their underwear, she couldn’t help but ask, “Sea monsters? Is that a real thing?”

“No sea monsters in here,” she said smiling at the girls, trying to put them at ease, she came closer to them now. “But you can’t swim in every bit of water, okay?”

The girls nodded, rapt at her words.   
  
“On my very first day on the ground a sea monster tried to eat me, if it weren’t for my friends, I’d be fish food!” Octavia’s voice was animated, like she was used to telling kids stories. It made Clarke wonder why Octavia didn’t have any children of her own yet.

“Who saved you?” Cora asked, eyes wide.

“Monty did!” Octavia said taking Cora’s hand, then reaching for May’s. She walked them to the edge of the water. “No monsters, I promise.”

“You said friends, did someone else help?” May asked as they stepped into the water.

“Another person did, but he’s gone now, and it turns out he was a terrible friend,” Octavia’s words were chosen with purpose and Clarke realized the more she heard Octavia speak the more questions she had. “But the point is you need to know the water first before you get in. This spot is safe.”   
  
The pond was maybe the size of their old living room. It was a widened spot of a small stream, shaped like a pear, with the stream feeding into the top of the pear and heading out at the bottom.

As Octavia got the girls comfortable in the water Clarke listened as she explained that further down from this pond the stream fed into a large river, so wide you couldn’t pass it easily. That’s where Octavia almost died and it served as a boundary between clans.

“You’ll know the water because there’s a red seaweed growing there, don’t get too far in. It’s dangerous.

Her words were forward, but her tone seemed to easily sway the girls, giving them a rule but not meant to scare them. Clarke was impressed.

They spent the afternoon in the sun, Octavia teaching the girls to blow bubbles near the edge, then moving them out further into the water where they could stand up to their waists, then showing them strokes, teaching them to kick. Clarke sat with her toes in the water watching, she’d removed her own clothes and enjoyed the feeling of the sun on her skin. She felt warm and relaxed. That is until her skin started to feel too hot.

“You’re burnt,” Octavia said, noticing Clarke’s attempts to cool her skin in the water, pulling handfuls of water to her shoulders.

“I’m what?” she asked too concerned with trying to dull the sting.

“Sunburned! Don’t you know what that is?” Octavia was trying hard not to laugh at her. Clarke might have appreciated it if she wasn’t so uncomfortable.

“I know what that is, I’ve just never been sunburned. I didn’t even think about it.” Clarke frowned. “Are the girls pink too?”

“I tried to keep them in the shade over here, you’re gonna want some aloe for that. We’re about done, let’s head back so you can treat it before it gets unbearable.”

The girls whined about having to leave but Octavia promised to do it again, consoling them and she even helped them get dressed again. Clarke was thankful for that as she could barely get her own clothes on again without wincing. Her arms were stiff and she hadn’t noticed it until she put her pants on but her shins were also burned.

There was a rustling in the bushes and Clarke reached for the pistol hidden in her bag, her heart racing and adrenaline pumping through her veins.

“Hey, it’s just a fox.” Octavia’s chin tipped towards the bushes.

Clarke saw the red of the fur and closed her eyes tightly, lowering the pistol, and then whined at the feel of her skin. Octavia was kind enough not to say anything more, but Clarke was embarrassed at her reaction.

“Bellamy has me a little jumpy I guess, from what happened on the way back from your village on Tuesday,” Clarke explained. She put the bag on her back and grimaced at the sensation of the material settling there.

“What happened?” Octavia asked, nudging the girls along the path in front of them.

“He didn't tell you?” She thought surely he would have told his sister, he’d calmed considerably in the days since it happened but Clarke suspected it was all a show. She caught Bellamy checking the treeline by their tent too often for him to have actually forgotten the encounter.

“I didn't see him this morning, he wasn't working the gate so I figured I'd come back and have dinner tonight so I could see him.

So Clarke relayed the story much like she’d told her mother: vague and leaving out the part about Miller being socked in the eye. Octavia’s face was blank as she listened and it made Clarke uneasy. She’d rather see some kind of reaction than this non response. When she finished retelling it Octavia kept her eyes on the path in front of them, then she tilted her head as though she’d just thought of something.

“He was probably a deformed man.”

“What do you mean? I examined him,” Clarke shot back. It felt like Octavia was dismissing her, but she wasn’t sure what there was to dismiss.

“You saw his arm and he was covered in furs, there could be any number of mutations, he might have a tail or have webbed feet. You wouldn’t know,” she said cooly.

“Okay,” Clarke drew out the last syllable trying to calm herself. “So do you know what clan he might be from? Why he ran off?”  

“They don’t have clans.” Octavia paused, took a deep breath, and then pushed through quickly like the information was painful. “When a child is born with a deformity, they’re supposed to be killed. There’s a ceremony and the mother is supposed to put the baby out of it’s misery.”

“The deformities you listed aren’t fatal.”  
  
“But they’re no good for breeding. They’ll be passed down,” Octavia’s tone continued to be solemn but firm.

“I didn’t know you were a geneticist,” Clarke snapped.

“It’s not like I like the practice! It’s just how they do it,” Octavia defended.

Clarke looked up ahead and watched the girls walk, they picked flowers and pulled leaves off the bushes, they smiled back at her when they noticed her watching. She remembered when Cora was a baby, her wrinkly skin and her smooshed nose, the thought of killing her made Clarke feel sick.

“I’ve seen mothers kill their babies,” Octavia’s voice broke and Clarke turned her attention back to Octavia for a minute. “I’ve killed more animals than I can count down here. In the worst of circumstances I’ve killed a few people, bad people. But,” Octavia swallowed, when she spoke again her voice was thick with emotion. “I couldn’t do that. I can’t. I’m scared enough that I would fuck up a kid because of the way I was raised, but that? I could never.”

Clarke wanted to hug her but she seemed caught up in her own personal trauma so she hung back. “I understand,” Clarke offered hoping her words would comfort Octavia in the smallest way.

The mystery man seemed less important, even the practice of babies with deformities from radiation took a backseat to what Clarke could see was another issue entirely. This was the reason Octavia wasn’t a mother and there were no words that Clarke could give her that would make it better. Certainly not from her mouth. Clarke was under no illusion that the day’s conversations meant they were now the best of friends.

“Did you worry that you wouldn’t be a good mother? You know, with the bad example you’ve had? How did you decide you were ready?” Octavia asked. Her voice was more steady now.

“I worried,” Clarke replied. She smiled wistfully at Cora running to beat May to a tree. “But I didn’t get to decide I was ready. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Shit, did you have any say in what happened to you?” Octavia asked sincerely.

“Yeah, what to eat for dinner every night.” She shrugged.

“Was it your mom again?”

“No, the girls are 10 months apart. Your brother didn’t have a choice either. There was a terrible meningitis outbreak before I married Curtis, my first husband. It killed so many kids. I went to work every day in medical dreading it because another baby or toddler would die on my watch and there was nothing we could do. The strain was nasty. We couldn’t treat it. We just had to sit with them while they died.”

Clarke looked away to take a deep breath, it was a dark time on the Ark. Octavia was understandably horrified by her words.

“Chancellor Jaha, Wells’ father, about six months after the outbreak was under control, he put out an executive order that anyone married without a child had to attempt to have one. Even the parents who had lost children in the epidemic. The order lasted for almost a year and it was a political nightmare. Jaha resigned over it. He took his life a few weeks after.”

“Nice to see the Ark never changed,” Octavia said. “I mean it was never a great place to grow up but I assumed you had it better, you know, since you were in the upper class.”

“I had it better for other reasons but it wasn’t all windows and fancy food,” Clarke said gently. “And it got better. My relationship with my mom is a mess but I don’t think she’s done terrible things for the Ark. Though I think she needs to be replaced next year when her term is up. She’s not handling the move to the ground well.”

Octavia sighed. The conversations of the day were so intense they almost made Clarke forget the rubbing of the bag straps on her shoulder. She assumed Octavia must be exhausted as well but she wanted to offer her some peace. Clarke felt guilty for just skipping from Octavia’s problem to her own experiences. Even if she was asked.   

“You could come to the settlement,” Clarke suggested. “Just as a backup plan, you know if you wanted to have a baby and something was not quite right, you could skip out of there, I could even deliver your baby just to keep the village from knowing. I don’t know if there are witch hunts or anything but I could help.”

Octavia didn’t respond at first. She kept walking. It felt like forever before she finally spoke, “I don’t think that will work but thanks for the offer.”

“It will stand as long as I’m around,” Clarke said trying to catch her eye but Octavia didn’t look at her the rest of the walk home.

\--

Bellamy was done with work. Raven had tasked him with hauling wood from the communal shed to the work space around the trees they were going to use for the houses. Miller was helping, though with his fair share of complaining. Bellamy had already hauled four armfuls and was about to take a break and get dinner when he was tackled by two small people and one slightly bigger.

“We’re back, big brother, and we’re heavy!” Octavia shouted as she slammed into him.

He grunted trying to stay upright, he stumbled backward a few steps but managed to keep standing, grabbing Cora and May and lifting them. Octavia backed off now, rolling her eyes.   
  
“What are you feeding us?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Did you leave Clarke out there? Do you hate her that much?” Bellamy asked sarcastically, without thought.

May gasped and Cora made a face.

“Daddy, Octavia loves Mom!” May exclaimed.

“I love the whole family, that’s what families do,” Octavia said before Bellamy could respond. “Just like your dad loves Lincoln!”

Bellamy frowned at Octavia and then quickly scrunched his nose up, making a silly face at the girls before he put them down.

“Yeah, family loves each other, no matter what,” he said, pushing Octavia’s shoulder so she almost fell over this time.

“Clarke is just getting aloe from medical. She’s so burnt.”

“You let my wife get sunburned? She’s so pale!”   
  
“I didn’t plan this and she’s not pale at the moment, she’s very pink.” Octavia added. “And she’s the doctor, how did she not prep for that?”

“Mayday, Cora are you guys burnt?” Bellamy asked, stopping them to inspect their cheeks.

“I kept them in the shade mostly.” Octavia smiled at the girls and they smiled back wide. “Clarke wasn’t so smart.”   
  
“Mommy is brilliant!” May cut in. “She can tell you all the bones in the foot, do you know how many bones are in the foot, Octavia?”

“A lot?” she humored May.

“There are 26 bones in the foot! That’s 52 bones in both your feet.”

“She’s definitely your kid, she’s a little nerd.” Octavia whispered to Bellamy before she ruffled May’s hair.

\--

“Octavia left,” Bellamy said when he came into the tent.

Clarke was face first on the mattress, in just her panties, with her legs bent at the knees so her pink shins were not subjected to the fabric of the bed. Her hair was in a bun, he assumed so none of it irritated her back. Upon closer inspection her back was red, with the exception of where her bra had been, and he could see even a few spots where blisters were forming. He cringed on her behalf. He heard some kind of a muffled reply but nothing he could understand.

“I brought you some food and the girls are outside for a little longer, they’re with Raven, those dumb blue butterflies are out and Cora spotted them outside of the fence, so Raven said they could sit with her and watch them for a few more minutes while she works.”

He sat down next to her on his side of the bed. He reached over her but resisted the urge to touch her back. It was a good thing he did because Clarke quickly turned her head, but with the sudden movement she winced, closing her eyes.

“Don’t you dare touch my back unless it’s to put more of that goop on it, and even then you better be careful. When I have a full range of motion without tears forming in my eyes I will murder you if you don’t listen.” Clarke took a shallow breath.

“You’re having kind of a terrible week. First cramps and now this?”

Clarke groaned into the pillow causing Bellamy to reach for the aloe paste.   
  
“Gently!” she cried as his finger just barely touched her skin. “I know all kinds of ways to poison you, there’d be no evidence.”

“Why does medical have aloe vera but not sunscreen?”

“Because we’re usually wearing clothes. I’m the first idiot to sunbathe.”

“But aloe?”

“It helps rashes,” she answered.

“Are you gonna try your hand at chemistry and start developing something to help? We’re gonna need it in the summer.” Bellamy carefully moved his fingers around the worst spots.

“Someone is going to, I don’t know if I can do it, Jackson is the one with the pharmacy heavy background.” Clarke moaned when he put the cold goo on a particularly rough patch, Bellamy tried to ignore the way the sound affected him. “Thank God I don’t have to work until tomorrow night.”

“Did you at least have fun?” Octavia had been cagey about answering how the day was but he hoped it was because May and Cora were listening.

“We talked.”

Clarke sucked in air and Bellamy knew he’d pushed too hard on the small of her back.   
  
“Sorry,” he said sincerely. “Good talking?”

“There was a lot of talking. It was,” Clarke trailed off, choosing her words carefully. “Informative.”  
  
“I’m glad you’re back safe.”

Bellamy had been a mess all day worried. He knew Octavia was capable and Clarke was a good shot, she’d been practicing. But he didn’t love the idea of his family not being within the safety of the fence. At Clarke’s request though, he didn’t bring it up. He pretended that there wasn’t a heavy feeling in his gut. Bellamy realized though that this comment was exposing his concern over the mystery man from last week.

“I thought maybe you and Octavia might kill each other so I’m glad that didn’t happen.”

“Nice save, but I know you’re still worried. We don’t need to talk about it but Octavia didn’t have any ideas and she didn’t seem concerned,” Clarke said as he finished up on her back. “You should go get the girls. It’s late and they’re tired from all the excitement today.”

Bellamy leaned over and kissed the side of her head. “Watch me be super dad while you’re out of commission. Relax and I’ll get them in bed.”   
  
“You’re always super dad,” she mumbled.

He moved closer to her face and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.

“Thank you for trying to get along with my sister.”   
  
“Anything for you, including searing my skin apparently,” she said before kissing him again.


	5. Chapter 5

__

_The teenagers ran through the forest, stopping every now and then to lean against a tree and kiss frantically, giggles punctuating every breath._

_“This is so much more fun than sitting in Mr. Jaha’s class about plant life, he drones on and on,” the girl said as the boy sucked on her neck._

_“Nina, Mr. Jaha is a very good looking man with a soothing voice, so either I fall asleep or I daydream about inappropriate things,” the boy admitted with a laugh._

_“Hot for teacher, huh, Brent?” Nina winked at him and then dragged him away by the hand._   
  
_They jogged further and ended up at a fork in the path. Instead of choosing which way to go, Brent pushed Nina against another tree. He put his hand on her neck, pinning her down and kissed her but she pushed him away._

_“What was that?”_

_“We’re far enough away this time, Councilman Blake and Mr. Jaha won’t find us like the other day. Although, I’m beginning to think you like being caught,” Brent teased._

_“No.” Nina shifted her whole body to the side to see around Brent. “It’s not them, it’s something else.”_

_“It’s probably just a raccoon or something,” he said, his hand drifting down over her breast, sliding her back in front of his body, not noticing the way she looked over his shoulder in horror._

\--

Clarke crawled into bed, barely remembering to toe off her boots. She was so tired. She rolled her shoulders trying to get comfortable in the bed. It was still warm from Bellamy sleeping in it all night but he and the girls weren’t there, they were likely at breakfast, so she just laid still, hoping her aching body would slip into sleep.

Just as she was in that comfortable spot right before falling asleep, the girls came running in, shouting, knocking things over, grabbing their bags.   
  
“Mom’s back!” Cora squealed and Clarke braced herself for a child to tackle her but nothing happened.

Bellamy shushed the girls and took them outside. Clarke debated pretending she slept through the cacophony but Bellamy was tiptoeing around the bed, grabbing the last minute things and she felt a surge of affection for him.

“Mrs. Stepanski has pneumonia, I sat with her all night,” Clarke said without moving from her spot on the bed.

“You’re too good, she didn’t need you to stay by at her bedside,” Bellamy replied, coming over to lean against the makeshift nightstand.

“I wanted to, she’s lonely.” Clarke turned her head to look up at him. “And then on my way out Jackson wanted my help, he had to remove a birth control implant and knew I hadn’t done one in a while.”

“That’s a thing that’s happening now? Does the Council know about this?” Bellamy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“The Chancellor told medical last week that if anyone was having problems with the implant we should just remove it.”

“Was she speaking as The Chancellor or as the sort of senior medical officer?”

“One,” Clarke said holding up a finger, “The population policies don’t need to be enforced on the ground. Two, fuck you, dude without a uterus who is also not a doctor. Three,” Clarke paused, trying to remember what her third argument was. She was so tired. “Oh yeah, three, the woman needed to have it removed for medical reasons.”

Bellamy held up his hands defensively.

“Those are all good reasons and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business. I only wondered if the Chancellor knew. You know she hates adjusting and changing policies down here even though things are drastically different.” 

Clarke was going to tell him how much she appreciated that he wasn’t fighting her on this but Wells popped into the tent and Clarke groaned. She needed to sleep.

“What’s up?” Bellamy asked Wells.

“There’s a kid out there that is going to need to change before school, she’s currently sitting in a puddle,” Wells said with a smile.

“Dammit, Cora,” Bellamy groused.

Clarke lifted her head from the pillow. “How do you know it’s Cora?” she asked incredulous.

“It’s Cora,” Wells supplied.

“Dammit, Cora,” Clarke echoed before Bellamy gave her a knowing look.

“Also,” Wells cut in before Bellamy could say anything about Cora and the puddle. “You’re not on the gate this morning are you?”

Bellamy shook his head.

“Nina Trevino and Brent Crane are missing again.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes. “God, can’t they make out closer to the settlement? Is it really that hard?”

Clarke didn’t know what was going on but the lack of context made her giggle.

“It’s two of my students,” Wells explained to Clarke. “We went out the other day and found them, now Nina’s mother says they’ve been gone all night, probably longer. Both of them weren’t in afternoon classes yesterday.”

“Idiot kids,” Bellamy grumbled. “This is the third time in a week we’ve had to go out after them. And all night? I’m forcing them to help Raven build treehouse walls as punishment.”

“Get Cora new clothes, be safe, and let me sleep,” Clarke said before shoving her head under her pillow.

“Alright, meet us after lunch, Raven will come in here and wake you up if you don’t,” Bellamy said.

“She will, it will be loud and unpleasant, you don’t want that,” Wells added.

Clarke waved them off and tried to go to sleep.

\--

“So what are your students doing right now if you’re out here with me looking for these dumbasses?” Bellamy asked Wells as they walked in the general direction of the last place they found the kids.

“It’s apprenticeship day.”

Back on the Ark, one day a week during secondary school, the kids would rotate and try out different jobs. It was supposed to offer everyone a good chance to see where they would thrive in a career but often it was a day to goof off. Job placement was always based on class status and teenagers knew it.

Since they’d come down to the ground Bellamy hoped that would change. On the ground, class separation wasn’t helping anyone and most people had let go easily of them, instead focusing on building the settlement up for everyone.

“Are the kids taking it seriously?” Bellamy asked, covering his eyes for a second from the wind that was picking up.

“Yeah, being down here instead of on the Ark has the kids invigorated. They think things will be different.” Wells stopped at the fork in the path, bending down to investigate the base of a tree.

“So did you cut your apprenticeship kids loose or were they not interested in becoming a secondary teacher?”

Wells laughed. “There are five kids who are on the teaching track and today they are in with an intermediate teacher.”

“Are all teachers interchangeable?” Bellamy asked.

“We’re all trained for everything, so basically.”

If Bellamy had any choice, he thought he might have been a teacher, but his mother had to have him in the Guard. He understood why but it was never the career he would have chosen.Then again being a janitor was worse, so when Diana Sydney got him reinstated, he didn’t put up a fuss.

Branches were blowing in the breeze, the sun seemed lost behind dark clouds. Bellamy looked down momentarily, Wells was still inspecting what looked like a pile of dirt, there might have been footprints in it but Bellamy didn’t notice. Something caught his eye and he turned around, he found a yellow scarf flapping in the wind.

“Shit,” Wells said standing up, seeing what Bellamy saw.

The scarf was caught on a branch and under the branch was the bloody body of Nina Trevino.

\--

Wells had brought a full pack with him, he always did when he left the settlement. Bellamy had mocked him for it before, but not today. They used the canvas meant as a temporary shelter to wrap her body in and then they carried her back to camp.

They walked in near silence except when they needed to adjust Nina’s body.

“We should take her to medical, they can try to figure out what did this to her,” Wells said as they were almost to the gate.   
  
“Or who,” Bellamy said, adjusting his hold on the material.

“You think it was grounders?”

“Not exactly,” Bellamy said, hesitant to suggest to Wells what he was really thinking.

Clarke didn’t believe it, even Miller thought it was just a bad day and the guy was gone for good, but Bellamy’s gut was telling him that mystery man was either the killer, or knew something about this girl’s murder, somehow.

“You think it was the guy? The one who gave Miller that shiner?” Wells asked stopping. “Let’s put her down for a minute, let me stretch. I want to get her straight to medical but we have to pass her mother’s tent so I want to walk quick. I don’t want to explain what happened to her mom on the way in.”

Bellamy nodded and they gently placed the body on the ground. “The guy, there was something that was just off about him. He didn’t say anything to us, the way he looked at Clarke was creepy, the whole encounter was strange.”

“But why? Why would some random guy in the forest kill this girl?” Wells rolled his shoulders and looked towards camp. “Where’s Brent? Dead too? Scared and hiding? Maybe he did it himself?”

“You think that idiot kid could do this?” Bellamy asked skeptically.

“No, I don’t.” Wells sighed. “Your mystery guy seems like a better suspect, but there’s a lot of questions.”

A gust of wind ripped through them and the tarp opened to reveal Nina’s bloodied face. They both worked to get the canvas over her body again.

“It’s going to be a nasty storm,” Bellamy said, swallowing his sick feeling.

They were carrying someone’s daughter. He needed to get home to make sure his own daughters were safe. He needed to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later.

“Let’s go before it starts to rain.”

\--

Because of the storm, no one noticed them carrying in a body wrapped in a tarp. People were running around securing tents, bringing things inside, wrapping things up. They made it to medical without any fanfare. Bellamy told The Chancellor what happened since she was the doctor on duty and Wells went to let Nina’s mother know. Brent’s parents would demand a search party but with the storm, Bellamy was happy to see Kane come into medical. Kane took over any logistics for a search party, but insisted it go out after the storm.

Bellamy wasn’t surprised to find Raven still trying to work in the wind and light mist of the weather. Clarke was running around trying to cover all the prefab walls they’d put together so far but Raven was on the platform in the trees.   
  
“Did you tell her she needs to come down?” Bellamy asked Clarke, helping her cover the pile of walls.

“Nah, I figured I’d let her hang out 20 feet up in the air all day, rain be damned,” she snarked.

“So she didn’t listen,” Bellamy said turning to see Raven still not coming down from the trees. “Raven, what the hell are you doing? It can’t be that important, come down and get inside!”

“The platform isn’t moving!” she shouted down.

Bellamy looked to Clarke like she might have understood what Raven was talking about but she just shook her head.

“Great, now _you_ should move down here, where it’s safe!” Clarke shouted over the wind.

The rain was starting to come down harder. Real, fat raindrops. That seemed to snap Raven out it because she made her way down the ladder and headed towards them finally. They took refuge in Clarke and Bellamy’s tent.

“You’re back!” May squealed, hugging Bellamy’s waist.

He picked May up and held her tightly, trying to forget the body he’d just spent an hour bringing back. Clarke gave him a look and he gave her a half smile, a wordless signal that he’d explain later.

“The platform is going to have to move,” Raven said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Again, Clarke and Bellamy looked at each other confused. Bellamy put May down and she went back to her spot where she and Cora were coloring.

“Trees move in the wind. We’re going to be fucked in treehouses if the platform doesn’t move with the trees,” Raven explained exasperated.

“Sorry, you’re saying the houses need to sway? And that’s good?” Clarke asked.

Raven nodded and scoffed. “It’s not that complicated, I just didn’t think of it before. But now I know, I’ve got to have them be able to shift a little with the trees so that the structure doesn’t weaken.”  
  
“I feel like you’re speaking a different language,” Bellamy said.

Raven sighed frustrated. “Just trust me, I have to go back to the drawing board and we need to rework the platforms. I know I can make it work but I’m annoyed I didn’t realize it before.”

“In Raven we trust,” Clarke said, putting a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “We will do whatever you tell us to do. Especially if you have plans for a bed that is bed height, not sleeping on a makeshift mattress on the ground height.”   
  
Bellamy smiled fondly remembering how everyday Clarke woke up groaning about their current bed.

“Spoiled,” he said, pulling Clarke to him and kissing her hair, the sick feeling in his stomach calming just a little.

“Your princess really is,” Raven said rolling her eyes. “And don’t worry, I already have a captains bed all designed, anything for you.”

Clarke flashed Raven one of her brightest smiles.

“Is it going to set us back a while? Fixing the platform?” Bellamy asked.

“Nah, I’ll figure out some fixes and I think we can adjust it whenever everything dries out from this storm,” Raven answered. “I need to go sketch some stuff though.”

Raven left and Bellamy sat down to tell Clarke about Nina Trevino, quiet enough that his own daughters wouldn’t overhear.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Bellamy, it seemed, had spent the better part of the afternoon chopping wood for various treehouse purposes. It was warm and he was shirtless and there wasn’t a single person that could blame Clarke for dragging him back to their tent when she was presented with the picture of him swinging an ax, half naked, beads of sweat accentuating all his best features.

She kissed along his collarbone as she rode him, the salty taste of his skin and his groans spurning her on, rolling her hips, lifting up, then sinking back down on him. Clarke loved the way his voice hitched as she worked him over. His hands dug into her thighs and he pushed up into her and she couldn’t help her own whimper at the sensation.

“I love the way you feel but don’t play with me, we don’t have that much time,” he said, lifting her chin so he could kiss her.

“A door, have you seen the door for our bedroom?” Clarke said breathless as he flipped her onto her back and lifted her legs up to reach a spot deeper in her.

“What do you think those logs are going to turn into?” Bellamy smirked.

They were going to have a door and behind the door there was going to be a bedroom. They could have sex without worrying about kids or people walking in on them and Clarke could not be more ecstatic at just the thought of a barrier like that. And in a house no less. She was done living out of a tent.

Clarke reached down to rub her clit and he kissed her calf as he continued to pump into her. By the time her toes curled, he’d lowered her legs and was hovering over her for a few more quick strokes before going over the edge himself. Bellamy laughed into her shoulder as they recovered.

“Miller knows exactly why you dragged me off, he’s out there finishing the wood and cursing my name right now,” he said.

Clarke ran her hands through his hair as he kissed her shoulder. “You better get out there then,” she said, using her foot to gently kick at his side and move him off of her. “He’s just mad Monty isn’t around for the show.”

Bellamy laughed again from beside her. It was when he was like this, happy and content that she was so glad she’d done her mother one last favor and said she’d marry this man.

“It wasn’t a show, it’s literally the only thing Raven says I’m allowed to do without supervision,” he said. “She’s never going to forget that one time.”   
  
“You nailed your hand to the wall,” Clarke reminded him with a smile. “It was horrific for everyone involved. Also you got a lot of blood on the wall. I don’t want our home’s walls to have blood on them.”

“We’ve been working on the treehouses for almost a month, I haven’t yet hurt myself in any way or gotten blood on any of the wood.” Bellamy took on a look of mock offense. “Also, I can’t believe we haven’t made a single dirty joke in all of this: wood, nailed, shows? I’m disappointed in us.”

“Go help Miller,” she said waving him off. “I’ll go get the girls from school.”

But she didn’t get far. Actually she was lucky they both had time to get dressed. Miriam walked up just as they made it back to the treehouse site. Both the girls were trailing behind her.

“I’m sorry, I was coming, I didn’t see how late it was,” Clarke said covering her forehead and cringing.

“No, no, I brought them home a little early. I wanted to,” Miriam hesitated.

Clarke looked to the girls. “What did you two do?”

The girls looked up like scared deer.

“Nothing, they didn’t do anything,” Miriam explained as she handed Clarke and Bellamy each a drawing the girls had made. “We were doing some storytelling, it’s to help them learn to read, they…”  
  
Bellamy made a noise like he was bored already with the conversation and Clarke elbowed him. Miriam looked a little embarrassed before putting a pointer finger on a spot on each sketch.

“What does that look like to you?” she asked.

“A gray blob,” Clarke guessed, tilting her head to the side and trying to make out any other details on May’s paper.

“Shit,” Bellamy whispered before grabbing the drawing in Clarke’s hand and examining it, too.

Clarke had no idea what she was supposed to see but when she looked at Bellamy’s face she shook her head. Not this again. It had been over a month since the encounter with the mystery man. It had been three weeks since Nina Trevino’s death. It had been two weeks since Brent Crane’s parents had called off the search out of grief. It was all just a fluke. It had to be. But clearly Bellamy didn’t think so.

“Cora, May.” He took a knee so he was at their level.   
  
The last time Bellamy questioned Cora he was frantic. This time he was calm but Clarke knew this was an act to try and get more information out of the kids.   
  
“Can you tell me about your pictures? They look so good, Mom loves them too, but we want to hear the story you thought of when you drew them.” His tone was calm and interested.   
  
Clarke tried to smile to go along with the questioning.   
  
“This is the fence, right here by our tent, see, I drew our tent,” Cora explained.   
  
“I did too! But we argued about which color the tent is. It’s obviously fuschia, but Cora says it’s more burgundy but I can see it from here and she’s wrong.” May pointed at the tent 30 feet away. “I was right. It’s definitely fuschia.”   
  
“Both renderings of the tent look so great. I like the way this one has boots outside,” Bellamy said pointing to Cora’s picture. “But I can tell you put a lot of work into the trees behind our tent, May.”   
  
“I had to because we can’t always see him because of the trees. So to get it just right, I added more trees,” May said proudly.   
  
Clarke tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. She was impressed Bellamy didn’t flip out right there. He was cool, like he expected it. But he had. She’d told him to ignore his gut feeling and she was wrong.   
  
“Him?” he asked gently, pointing again to the grey blob on the drawings. “This guy? Do you see him a lot?”  
  
This time Cora spoke up, “Pretty much whenever we’re outside. He waves sometimes. Sometimes he doesn’t.”   
  
Clarke felt sick. Someone had been watching her children for weeks. She’d dismissed Bellamy as being paranoid but he was right all along.  
  
“Do you think you’ll see him today?” Bellamy asked.   
  
This time Clarke heard the desperation in his voice. She felt awful and sick and she was afraid he was going to blame her for all of this.   
  
Both girls shrugged. “Maybe,” May answered

“If you see him, we need a signal, can you shout hmm, what’s something you wouldn’t say when you’re playing, we need a code, like spies,” Bellamy explained. “What about ‘silly pickle?’ When you see him, shout ‘silly pickle’ okay?”

Clarke tried to interrupt him, but he turned swiftly.

“Please let me finish,” he said sharply before facing the girls again. “You can go play, remember the spy code word and stay where we can see you. Don't go near the fence, okay?”

As soon as the girls ran off Bellamy stood and Clarke smacked his chest.

“Are you using our kids as bait?” she asked, her voice shaky.

“Are you mad at me right now? This is not the time, Clarke.”

“I'm gonna just go find Wells,” Miriam said reminding them she was witnessing the whole exchange.

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” Clarke said. “But yes, get Wells, he needs to know about this.”

Bellamy was watching the girls play with the other kids. As far as Clarke could tell it was some tag game.

“Now would be a great time for you to say ‘wow, I was wrong. I should have never called you paranoid,’” Bellamy said without looking at her.

The accusation stung and Clarke fought back, “You want to play who was right and who is wrong? This isn't a competition. You were acting crazy! What was I supposed to think?”

“You just accused me of using our kids as bait which might be the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me. As if I wouldn’t try to fight off an army for this family, as if I haven’t already shown you I can keep them safe. It wasn’t that long ago that Diana Sydney-” Bellamy stopped, his jaw clenched.

Clarke felt her own muscles tense. She knew she’d been wrong but he was being hot headed and arrogant and it was not a good look on him.

“I can't think straight. I want to throw up, someone has been stalking the girls and you want to make this about you?” she whispered harshly, taking a step closer to him, remembering that Miller was near and vaguely registering that there was no longer the constant noise of his ax splitting logs.

“I'm not making it about me but I'd like some validation, maybe ‘thanks for looking out for our family, thanks for being alert, thanks for worrying about our safety!’” Bellamy threw his hands up in frustration.

They stood toe to toe seething.

“Who the fuck did this?” Raven shouted from the treehouse platform. “Who is trying to fuck with me like this?”

Clarke was furious and nauseous but she turned to Raven in time to see her running to them wild and fuming.

Now she knew for sure that Miller was watching them, she saw him stand even more rigid at Raven’s outburst. She was embarrassed for half a second before Raven started shouting again.

“No seriously, this shit isn't funny!” Raven waved around something in her hand. “This should be in a box under my mattress so who is fucking with me?”

Bellamy reached out and grabbed Raven’s wrist to stop her from swinging it around, his fingers then slid down the chain to a kind of metal bird at the bottom.

“I’ve never seen this in my life, why would any of us know where it was or bring it out to mess with you?” he asked.

Raven glared.

“I don’t know but it’s not okay,” she shot back.

“What kind of fun did we walk into?”

Clarke was surprised to see Octavia and Lincoln standing near, she didn’t know they were coming today and they looked perplexed by what was happening. Raven didn’t seem shocked at all to see them though and immediately pounced on Octavia, crowding her. Octavia didn’t even flinch, Clarke was impressed. Again Raven swung the necklace around as though it proved some point.

“Do you know what this is?” Raven asked sharply.

“It looks like a necklace,” Octavia answered evenly.

“Have you ever seen one like this before?” Raven questioned and Clarke noticed Octavia swallow.

“No.”

“Bullshit.” Raven narrowed her eyes and leaned in, getting even closer to Octavia.

Clarke noticed Bellamy take a step closer like he might have to break something up.

“Who else came down to the ground with you?” Raven lowered her voice, it was menacing. “Who besides you wasn’t on the manifest?”

“No one,” Octavia said, but again she swallowed and Lincoln’s hand flexed.

“You’re lying,” Raven shouted, startling Clarke and Bellamy.

Bellamy made his move now, wedging himself between Raven and Octavia, pushing Raven back a few steps.   
  
“Move, Bellamy,” Raven growled but Bellamy looked to Octavia who stood stoic.

“Do you know something?” Miller asked.

“If you know something, please tell us, Octavia, there’s a lot of shit going on right now,” Clarke added before Bellamy sighed.

After a few tense seconds Octavia finally spoke, “Your boyfriend gave you that, right?”

Raven seemed to deflate at the question, she said nothing, only nodded.

“He came down here but he died,” Lincoln said. “You thought he was dead yesterday, today you think there’s a chance he might be alive, telling you all over again only renews your grief.”

Raven stood shaking her head. Clarke came to put her arm around her.

“Lincoln stop,” Octavia said. “If we’re going to tell you, you should know everything. Like the fact that we only think he died. Or the fact that he was banished five years ago for being entirely too close to several bloody disappearances.”

Clarke’s stomach dropped.

“Why would you keep any of that really important information to yourself, O? You know about everything that has been happening here, do you know where he might be?” Bellamy asked, clearly annoyed. “We might find the kid from Wells’ class!”

“That kid is dead. Finn wouldn’t keep him alive,” Octavia said matter-of-factly.

“Finn didn’t do this,” Raven mumbled, she was trembling and Clarke wondered if without her arm, Raven would fall over. “You just think that. He’s an easy scapegoat that fits into Bellamy’s crazy theories.”

“You don’t know him anymore, Raven. Things were different when we got down here.” Octavia frowned.

There was so much more to the story but Octavia wasn’t going to tell it.

“Raven,” Clarke said softly. “Let me take you home to rest. We can’t figure this out today, you should rest.”

Raven took a few deep breathes and then agreed.

\--

“He’s been watching us,” Bellamy explained to Octavia, his voice was tight. “The girls have seen him almost everyday out in the trees. If Raven’s right, he came into the settlement, took that necklace from her tent, and hung it up on a branch so she’d find it while she was working on the treehouse. Can’t you see why we’re all a little tightly wound?”

Bellamy wasn’t sure he’d taken a full breath of air in almost an hour. His muscles would be sore tomorrow from constant contraction.

“He’s dead,” Lincoln said, but Bellamy saw the way that his hand kept straying to the knife on his hip. “Five years ago, when we banished him, a hunting party saw his body.”

“They were wrong,” Bellamy almost snapped back.

“Bellamy,” Wells tried. “I’m sure they understand the weight of the situation now. You don’t have to keep lecturing them.”  
  
Wells had shown up right before Clarke took Raven home. Bellamy filled he and Miriam in on what they’d missed, with some interjections from Miller. But Wells had missed the bulk of the events and as a result he was more level headed.

“Shouldn’t you be telling, I don’t know, someone in charge of investigating crimes or something?” Octavia asked, clearly peeved.

“That would be him,” Wells answered gesturing to Bellamy. “And him.” This time Wells pointed to Miller.  

“This is your job? I thought you just watched the gate.” Octavia shrugged.

Bellamy rolled his eyes. “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

His eyes strayed back to the girls playing with the other kids. Still no codeword so Bellamy hoped that maybe the mystery man, probably Finn Collins, set up Raven and then left. But he kept a watchful eye on the kids, even as he tried to get all the information he could from Octavia and Lincoln.

He tried not to think about how angry he was at Clarke and how she was equally upset with him. It wasn’t productive.

\--

Clarke stayed with Raven for a while. Raven was the smartest person Clarke knew and she’d known her for years. She’d never seen her cry. It wasn’t something Raven did even around people she was comfortable with. But the minute Clarke got Raven into bed, she started to sob. Clarke held her, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. She hoped it helped.

When she got back to the tent it was dark and she almost tripped over Bellamy’s sleeping form, on the floor, between the girls. It looked like he’d stayed with them when he put them to bed and had fallen asleep himself. He still had his boots on but more heart tugging, May was snuggled into his side and Cora, ever the wild sleeper, was on her stomach, her head near his feet, with her arm over his legs.

Clarke wanted to cry. She was sad for Raven. She was so scared for the girls and so embarrassed that she hadn’t listened to Bellamy. Even more embarrassed that instead of apologizing she dug in her heels and fought him. Tomorrow she needed to fix that. Everything was topsy turvy and she needed to at least right the situation she had some bit of control over.

She pulled Bellamy’s boots off, he startled awake and she knew he was still on alert.

“It’s okay, go back to sleep, either there or come to bed over here,” she whispered sitting on the edge of their mattress.

He shook his head, put his arm around May, tapped Cora’s leg gently, and grunted something that sounded like he was comfortable where he was. Clarke understood the desire to be close to the girls. She didn’t want to let them out of her sight. But for now it was safe. She needed to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO BIG REVEAL! DUN DUN DUN! Were you surprised? 
> 
>  
> 
> Special thanks to Caitlin for just being the best.


	7. Chapter 7

Clarke slept fitfully. She heard Bellamy get up with the girls and take them to breakfast, they hadn’t come back yet but Clarke knew it was time to get up. She chose to stay in that haze of in between grasping for a few more minutes of rest.

The steady sound of kids playing in the settlement droned, then she heard hammering from the treehouse site, she put her pillow over her head trying to drown out the sounds.

“Silly pickles!”

Clarke pushed herself up out of bed and propelled herself out of the tent without thinking. She didn’t even register the bright light of the sun as she raced to where she knew the girls played. They were both looking at the fence, so Clarke faced the fence too and saw the furs of the mystery man duck behind a tree. Without thought she bolted to the fence, her feet squishing in the mud of the early morning, she squeezed herself through the rough barrier that was made of bits of wood and metal scraps before starting up the hill into the trees, she couldn’t hear anything but the pounding of her heart as she tried to follow the man. She ran as swiftly as she could, trying to keep him in her sights ahead of her but he was zigzagging through the trees trying to lose her.   
  
She vaguely heard someone shout her name but she kept running. When she got to a particularly thick patch of brush she stopped. Her limbs hurt and she was breathing hard from exertion. Ahead of her she saw someone else running but before she could go on, someone grabbed her arm.

“Clarke!” Bellamy’s forehead was wrinkled with concern and he was sweating. “I’ve been calling your name for five minutes, chasing you through the forest, are you okay?”

“I saw him, I saw the guy or Finn or whatever, I saw him, the girls saw him,” she explained as she tried to catch her breath.

“I know, Miller ran from Gate 2, he heard them too, I was coming this way so we could meet in the middle, cut him off. I got this,” he said gently. “Also I’ve got the added bonus of pants and boots which you do not.”

Clarke looked down before closing her eyes in embarrassment. In her panic she’d just pushed herself out of bed and ran, not realizing she was in her sleep shirt and panties. Bellamy loosened his grip on her arm but only to move up, his fingers caressed the skin on her upper arm until she opened her eyes and looked.

“Half naked and bleeding was not the way I expect you wanted to start this morning?” He gave her a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry about yesterday, I’m sorry I said those harsh things. I’m sorry I ever thought you were crazy for being worried. I’ve been anxious about this for 18 hours and I feel like my nerves are shot. How have you been living like this for a month?” She looked up at him and he gave her a weak smile.

“I’ve sort of been living in a perpetual state of high anxiety since I was six so it’s not really a shock to my system anymore,” he said with a shrug.

Clarke leaned in and hugged him tightly, her arms around his middle, holding him as close as she could get, burying her face in his neck. The confession about his constant mental state made her want to cry but instead she just squeezed him, hoping that might make it better for a minute.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his skin. “I love you.”

He wrapped his arms around her and took a deep breath. “I love you, let’s get you back so someone can stitch your arm.”

“It’s fine,” she said, kissing the spot where his neck met his shoulder then pulling away.

She glanced down at her arm, poking at it, wincing when she got too close to the cut.

“I’m not a doctor but I think you need stitches,” he said, one arm still around her. “Should have gone over the fence not through it.” 

“Next time.”

“And maybe shoes and pants next time?” he suggested.

Clarke rolled her eyes.

“At least it’s warm,” she said examining her feet. They were covered in dirt, there was a cut here and there. Nothing too bad.

“Let me carry you back,” Bellamy offered. “We’re pretty far from the settlement. You hauled ass.”

“I was gonna get that fucker,” she grumbled. “I don’t think Miller got him since we haven’t heard from him.”

“Probably not, but maybe he’ll figure out what direction this guy comes from,” Bellamy said, turning and gesturing for her to get on his back.

“You’re not going to carry me.” Clarke put her hands on her hips. “Wait, do you think Miller is in any danger? Should we go after him?”

“He’s going to be fine, the guy only got him last time because he was distracted and unprepared,” Bellamy explained. “Get on my back, you’re gonna fuck up your feet...more.”

“They’re not that bad. I didn’t even notice while I was running out here, let’s go,” she said.

Clarke walked in front of Bellamy and pretended like her feet didn’t hurt. The adrenaline rush had worn off and now everything hurt. Her arm, her feet, the muscles of her legs from the way she sprinted this far.

“Clarke.” He did that thing where he dragged out the middle of her name meaning he was annoyed.

“I’m okay,” she lied.

“You’re also moving at a snail’s pace, just get on my back, I know the girls are safe but let’s get back to them quickly, yeah?”

Clarke took two more steps and stubbed her toe on a rock. All the fight went out of her and he knew it. He shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her.

“Tie it around your waist so you aren’t giving the neighbors a show,” he said with a smirk.

“Maybe I wanted to,” she replied with a pout.

“Do what you want, just please get on my back so we can get home.”

Clarke sighed defeated, tied the jacket around her waist, and got on his back.

\--

They stopped at the tent so Clarke could get dressed. Then Bellamy walked her over to medical.

“Mama, can I play outside later without my pants on?” May asked as they walked.

“No,” Clarke said quickly.

“No pants is strictly an inside activity, she just wanted to make sure you two were safe,” Bellamy explained. Both girls pouted.

“Be good at school,” Clarke said as they reached medical.

“It’s okay to cry when you get your arm fixed,” Cora told her seriously. “Sometimes you feel better when you cry.”

Clarke’s heart melted. She’d told Cora that same thing months ago when she tripped and sliced open her hand. It was worth it, hurting herself, running after a madman in the forest, to keep her kids safe.

She hugged both the girls and Bellamy leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“I’ll be back after I drop them off,” he said.

“You don’t have to check on me, I’ll be fine.”   
  
“I know, but I want to,” he said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Again she was reminded that keeping her family away from murderers was worth any injury or embarrassment.

\--

Bellamy dropped the girls at school, he stopped to tell Wells what had happened.

“Do you think he’ll be back or do you think the chase scared him off?” Wells asked.

“We’re gonna need a new code word for the girls, but I don’t know if he’ll come back and show himself to them. I’m hoping Miller can figure out where he’s coming from.”

“The Cranes would like a body to bury.” Wells scrubbed the back of his neck.

“If we get this guy, I hope I can bring him home,” Bellamy offered before heading back to medical.

On his way to find Clarke in the back he was stopped by Mrs. Stepanski. He remembered that Clarke mentioned she was bedridden but she smiled brightly when she saw him.

“Councilman Blake!” she cooed. “What a lovely surprise.”

Bellamy returned her smile and came around to talk to her. The old woman had been fond of he and Clarke but she seemed extra enthusiastic today.

“Mrs. Stepanski, you look radiant,” he replied matching her tone.

“You know, your wife is lovely, have I told you that lately? She is truly a godsend,” Mrs. Stepanski went on. “Some nights she stays here so I won’t get lonely. I tell her to go home to you but she insists.”

Bellamy smiled warmly at her. “She’s very concerned about you, don’t tell anyone I said this,” he lowered his voice and Mrs. Stepanski leaned in with a sly look on her face ready for a secret. “I think you’re her favorite."

His comments caused Mrs. Stepanski to erupt in giggles. Actual giggles. He tilted his head, surprised by her reaction, but dismissed the thought as she leaned closer to him.

“Don’t tell the Chancellor, but I like her daughter better than I like her. The Chancellor seems to have a stick up her ass.”

Bellamy choked trying to hide his laughter as both Griffin women walked into the area. Mrs. Stepanski pat Bellamy’s arm and winked at him, he tried to compose himself but ended up having a mild coughing fit.

“Are you alright?” Clarke asked concerned.

“He’s fine. I’ve just stunned him with my sparkling wit,” Mrs. Stepanski explained, a goofy smile on her face.

The Chancellor rolled her eyes and walked off as Clarke took Bellamy’s arm. They both waved at Mrs. Stepanski as they left.

“She’s in a mood,” Bellamy said when they were around the corner and out of earshot.

“High as a kite is more like it,” Clarke said.

“That explains a lot.”

“She’s going to die so we’re just keeping her comfortable,” Clarke said clearing her throat.

Bellamy looked back to where her bed was, his brows lowered, the fun of the conversation gone.

“You thought that might happen,” Bellamy said.

“She’s made peace with it so I’m trying to.” Clarke bit her lip. “I’ll miss her.”

Bellamy reached for her arm, checking bandage and changing the subject. “How many stitches?”

“Just two, I told mom she could have used a butterfly bandage but she insisted on the stitches,” Clarke explained. “It’s really the most motherly thing she’s done in a while though so I didn’t push her about it.”

Bellamy nodded. “What about your feet?”

“They’re fine. It feels weird, doing anything else but trying to find him,” Clarke said looking down. “I shouldn’t have gone out there today, you might have caught him then.”

“Hey,” Bellamy tried gently. “You were trying to help. Like a mama bear superpower or something kicked in. I get it.”

Clarke shrugged. “Is Miller back yet?”

“I’m here,” Miller said as though Clarke summoned him.

“Maybe you just woke up with superpowers,” Bellamy suggested, Clarke gave him a look. “No guy, huh?” Bellamy asked Miller.

Miller shook his head. “But I think I know where he’s hanging out.”

Bellamy felt a surge of hope.

“He came up on that river barrier, the one Octavia said never to swim in? There’s some caves, he headed for them.”

Bellamy was ready. This was more than hope, this was more than a lead. This was it. They were going to catch this guy.

“Grab Nakamura and tell Kane we’re going. I’ll meet you at the gate.”

Miller nodded at Bellamy’s instructions and left quickly.

“I’m going with you,” Clarke said firmly.

“You don’t have to. Let me do this,” he said, his hand again on her arm near the bandage.

She’d already been hurt today and he didn’t want her to be in any more danger.

“Bellamy,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “He’s dangerous. The more people who go after him the better.”

“This is my job, Clarke,” he argued. “You’re very capable and I love you for it, but I’d prefer you stay here.”

“He came after our kids,” she shot back, her voice cracking.

“I know, but the girls are the reason you should stay.” He swallowed, trying to figure out the best way to beg her to stay. “If something happens to me, you should be here for them.”

“Don’t even,” Clarke said with a scoff. “We’re not even discussing that. I’m going.”

Bellamy sighed and looked away. Clarke took that as an invitation to walk passed him and head out of medical.

“Clarke,” he called, following her out.

“We’re going, let’s go,” Clarke threw over her shoulder.

Bellamy groaned but he knew there was no fighting her.

\--

When they reached the gate, Miller was there with Nakamura. He handed Bellamy a bag and a rifle. Miller looked at Clarke like he was surprised to see her but Bellamy just took a pistol from Miller and gave it to her.

Before they could leave though a whole group of grounders in full gear walked up to the gate. Octavia was in front and Bellamy worried something had happened.

“What’s going on, O?” he asked concerned.

Octavia’s posture was stiff. Her face was closed off. This wasn’t the way he knew her. This was Octavia in her role as a second to Indra, the leader of TonDC. She made a motion with her hand and two men walked out in front of her and laid down a large parcel. Octavia pulled back the material to show the body of Brent Crane.   
  
“Found your boy,” she said, her tone soft, negating her stance.  

Bellamy heard Clarke take a deep breath next to him. He walked forward to see closer and verify it was Brent.

“Storey and Diaz,” he called to the men standing at the gate. “Take the body to medical. Let Chancellor Griffin know that Octavia brought him in and we’ll bring the Cranes by later.”

The men did as they were told and Bellamy turned back to Octavia. “Where did you find him?”

“There’s caves by the river, we found his body and one of our own. A boy that went missing last month. He’s likely the one Finn took before he found you. Looks like he fought him. Didn’t you say his arm was messed up?” Octavia asked Bellamy.

“It was, but it was infected. The wound wasn’t fresh, it had long enough to fester, so maybe a few days before he found us, is that when this kid went missing?” Clarke asked now, moving closer to Octavia.

Octavia gave Clarke a sidelong glance but then looked back at Bellamy. “He may have been missing five weeks.”

Bellamy didn’t miss the way Clarke huffed at the way Octavia didn’t address her but he’d worry about that later. This all seemed like a show of Octavia’s role in the village.

“But you didn’t find him? Finn Collins?” he pressed Octavia.   
  
“No,” she said, irritation clear in her voice.

“So you went into the only place we knew he spent his time, removed the bodies, and made it clear that his safe space has been violated?” Bellamy’s voice was tight, Octavia had ruined his lead.

“I collected bodies. From a murderer’s secret hideout. Yeah,” she ground out. “How dare I, right?”

“How the hell are we supposed to find him now, Octavia?” His yelling caused three men behind his sister to touch their weapons still on their belts.

“Maybe you let me do that, I found the bodies, what did you do exactly?” she shouted back.

Clarke cleared her throat, Bellamy was going to ignore her but Octavia looked at Clarke.

“Thank you for bringing back Brent Crane’s body, Octavia. How can we help you to locate the killer?” Clarke asked politely. Bellamy bristled but Octavia seemed to relax.

“Tomorrow, we’re going out to scout along the river. You’re welcome to join us,” Octavia said. Her words were stilted but she wasn’t going to fight or yell anymore.

“It’s early enough today,” Bellamy cut in but Clarke elbowed him.

“We need to take care of the bodies,” Octavia explained sternly, then gave him a look that came straight from his mother’s face. All judgement and annoyance.

“Tomorrow,” Clarke repeated back to Octavia.

She nodded and then made another hand motion. The men all followed her lead and started to walk away from the camp.

Bellamy hung his head. Their only lead was useless and now he had to sit around until tomorrow before he could go out again. The feeling in his gut had lessened at the hope that they might catch Finn but now it was churning and sputtering and he had to spend another day tamping it down.

“Come on,” Clarke said, reaching for his hand. “I’m sure Raven has some treehouse related tasks we can do to kill time.”

Bellamy hoped they involved a lot of hard work because he needed to ignore everything and just shut off his brain.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved seeing all your reactions to the big reveal last week! Thank you for sharing those with me!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOOK. IT’S NOT EVEN FRIDAY YET! AMAZING! Truth be told I’ve got a lot of work to do on my bellarke secret santa fic so I’m trying to get this caught up so that NEXT WEEK's chapter and my BSS aren’t late. Fingers crossed! I feel a little guilty because this one ends on a bit of cliffhanger but I hope it’s still fun!

Clarke tugged Bellamy’s hand up the stairs. The treehouses, all three of them, now had roofs. Clarke and Bellamy’s was two story and skinny, with long windows along the sides, it had a large room on the first floor, and two rooms on the second. Raven’s was a more stout shape, it contained just two rooms, but almost as many windows. Wells and Miriam's was more like Clarke and Bellamy’s but with the addition of a crowsnest that Wells had worked with Miller and Raven to build higher in the tree so you could look out across the valley. The three houses were connected with a system of adjoining decks.

“I know you’re upset that Octavia...that you can’t go after Finn today,” Clarke said as she stopped at the top of the stairs. “I understand. It’s been a crazy couple of days. But look at what we did, look at what we built.” Clarke gestured to the house in front of them with an exaggerated smile.

The last few days were hell on her nerves but Bellamy made her feel better, so she was going to do the same for him.

Bellamy shrugged. “Mostly Raven.”

“Okay, well look at what we helped Raven build,” she said pulling him into the house now. “We’ve got walls!”

Clarke let go of Bellamy’s hand, threw out her arms wide, and spun in a circle around the room.

“Not a tent! A real place to live!” Bellamy’s face didn’t change so Clarke shifted gears a little. “Have you seen our room?”

“I was working on the door yesterday, Clarke, I’ve seen the room,” he said brushing off her excitement.

Clarke bit her lip before running up the stairs to the second floor landing. On one side was a their room, across the small landing was the girls’ room. She leaned against the door and crooked a finger in Bellamy’s direction.

“What a nice door this is,” she said with a wicked smirk. “You should come over here and lean against it to make sure it’s installed properly.”

Bellamy finally cracked. He snorted and licked his lips before taking the stairs two at a time to reach her. He put his hands on the door behind her, above her shoulders and leaned in. “It’s a solid door.”

He was so close but he didn’t kiss her. He just hovered for a second, like he was taking her in. A soft smile spread across his face.

“What?” Clarke asked.

“Nothing,” he replied, but she knew he was lying.

“You gonna kiss me or what?”

He closed the gap and Clarke sighed into his mouth happily. She felt his knuckles running a track up and down her side, the movement was comforting, reminding her that he knew exactly how to touch her to make her feel warm, safe, and loved.

Bellamy pulled away when they heard a crash outside.

“We should go help,” he said before giving her one final kiss.

“Yeah, we probably should,” she agreed.

The work they were doing over the past week was interior along with thatching the existing roofs for water resistance. After that was done they’d start on the railings all around the decks to make it safe for kids. They were also waiting on the window panes. Raven had been working with a glass maker in TonDC and she was getting good, but for the summer, the cabins would be breezy and open. The glass would be done in shifts and then installed as it was finished all before it got cold.

Raven stood on the stairs of the treehouse platform looking lost. It was uncharacteristic of her but Clarke could guess Raven’s mood had something to do with the morning’s events. It was a small settlement and it was likely Raven heard about Finn being spotted. The realization brought Clarke back to reality after her short escape from it so she steeled herself and headed towards Raven.

“Tell me what to do,” Bellamy said.

“You can work on the shingles,” Raven replied without looking at him.

Bellamy nodded and climbed up the ladder to the top of the roof. Clarke though, came to stand next to Raven and watched her flex her hands absently.

“Raven?” she asked gently. “Are you okay?”

“I was marking the wood for the railings when the tray slipped.”

They’d rigged a number of wooden elevator type systems with ropes and pulleys to get things up and down from the platforms easily and quickly. They called them trays. Clarke looked over to Raven’s hands and saw they were bright red, with parts of her skin blistering.

“Jesus,” Clarke muttered. “You have to come to medical. Let me get your hands bandaged. Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice flat.

“Come on, I’m sure Bellamy won’t do anything stupid without your supervision.” Clarke turned to see that Bellamy heard her. He waved them off and went back to work attaching shingles.  

The walk to medical Raven didn’t say anything, her face continued to be blank and spacy. Clarke wasn’t sure what to do with her so she just guided her into a bed across from Mrs. Stepanski and gathered supplies to clean up the burns on her hands.

“I wonder why the tray broke,” Clarke said making conversation as she worked.

Raven just shrugged.

“Hi dear,” Mrs. Stepanski waved from her bed with a bright smile but still Raven’s expression stayed the same.

Clarke cleared her throat. “Is this about Finn?”

Raven looked at her then, her eyes sad. “Maybe?”

“It’s understandable that you’re not sure how to handle this, it’s earth shattering,” Clarke tried to comfort her.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling.” Raven took a deep breath. “I’m just not all here, sorry.” 

With those words Raven at least seemed to snap out it. She offered Clarke a half hearted smile.

“Shit, I’m out of gauze. Give me a second to go get some,” Clarke said before running into the other room.

It was then that Clarke realized medical was empty except for the three of them. It wasn’t unheard of. Whoever was the doctor on shift had likely stepped out to grab some food or use the bathroom and would be back shortly. Mrs. Stepanski always offered to greet anyone who came in from her bed and tell them to have a seat to wait for the doctor to come back. She’d been a fixture for a few weeks in medical and she was a mothering one. Always concerned that people weren’t getting enough to eat so she sent them away to fetch food.

Clarke dug around in the drawers looking for more gauze, the first two spots were empty so she ended up on her knees on the floor checking the bottom cupboard hoping to find some there.

She found a roll at the very back of the cabinet and stood up to take it out but stopped at the door way. She saw him. The mystery man. No, this was Finn. He was standing in front of Raven and he had the most horrifying smile on his face. The hairs on the back of Clarke’s neck stood up and then he saw her. He directed that disgusting smile and her, all teeth and stretched lips.   
  
“Hi Clarke.” He looked her up and down and Clarke felt herself trembling. “You probably want to see if you can help Mrs. Stepanski.”

Clarke took two steps to see Mrs. Stepanski holding her throat, it was gushing blood. She gasped and rushed to her bedside. Grabbing the blanket covering Mrs. Stepanski, Clarke moved it up to her neck in an automatic reaction to the gaping wound but it was too late. Mrs. Stepanski’s hands moved easily because she was weak and almost dead.

“I’m sorry Raven, I didn’t want to do these things, but someone has to. So I did it. I had to. But it’s not my fault.” Finn’s voice sounded mechanical and stilted.

Clarke looked over her shoulder, still holding the blanket to Mrs. Stepanski’s neck, and saw Raven cover her mouth in horror. At first Clarke worried that Finn had done something to Raven too, but she looked fine. He lifted his hand like he was going to touch her cheek, but Raven recoiled.

“Maybe next time,” Finn said before turning and walking out of the tent. 

Clarke stood over Mrs. Stepanski and checked for a pulse. It was futile and Clarke knew it. She was dead. She would take a moment to grieve the old woman later but there was no time right now.

Raven ran out of medical and Clarke followed her.

\--  

“Silly pickles!”

Bellamy heard the words and almost killed himself coming down from the roof, he rushed down the stairs and across the way to where the kids played. It was school hours so they were outside at the makeshift playground for recess. He scanned the mass of kids but couldn’t see May or Cora.

“Miriam,” Bellamy shouted so that the teacher turned away from another child and looked at him confused.

“Where are the girls?” he asked frantically.

Miriam looked around. “They were just here a few minutes ago,” she said before shouting herself, “May! Cora!”

Bellamy shook his head and ran towards the gap in the fence that Clarke had used this morning. He looked into the forest and didn’t see anything. He looked left and then right along the fence line and off behind a tent he saw the girls talking to someone he couldn’t see. He bolted quickly towards them yelling.

His heart was pounding and he hated that he didn’t have a gun or a weapon on him. As soon as he rounded the corner he saw the man. He wasn’t wearing furs, he was wearing what looked like Ark issued clothing. He must have worn it to blend in walking around the settlement. Bellamy pushed the girls behind him and ran at the man. He tackled him to the ground and landed several punches on his jaw easily. The man squirmed a little under him but then went limp. Bellamy held his throat, rage coursing through him. With just a little pressure he could snap the man’s neck. But behind him he heard the girls gasp in shock at the scene.

They didn’t need to see this. The man was unconscious so Bellamy took three deep breaths to calm himself down and then stood up to tend to the girls. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he took one final breath and knelt down so he was at their level. He opened his arms and they both ran to hug him. He held them close and repeated over and over again, “It’s okay. It’s over now.”

May was crying and Cora was on the verge, so after a few seconds he pulled back to examine their faces.

“Let’s go find mom, huh? She’ll check you out and make sure you’re okay, but we’re going to be okay,” he said finally feeling relieved.

But his relief was short lived. Well, it would have been if he remembered being hit over the head.

\--

“Mommy!”

Clarke heard Cora’s screaming long before she could see her. She didn’t even think about changing directions from following Raven who had started towards her own tent and instead ran towards the treehouses. On the platform in front of their house, Cora was shouting. May was sitting down and counting as she cried.

Clarke ran up the stairs, skipping steps as she went to get up faster.   
  
“What’s the matter?” she said, pulling Cora away from the edge of the platform.

“He,” Cora started but she was so worked up she had to take a breath. “Took Daddy,” she managed to get out between hysterical sobs.

Clarke’s stomach sunk. Her throat went dry and she couldn’t breathe. But she needed to take care of the girls first.

“Are you hurt?” she asked Cora and then May. They both shook their heads and May continued to count. “May, sweetie, why are you counting?”

“He told her she had to count to 100 or he was going to kill Daddy,” Cora explained before breaking into a fresh round of tears. She buried her face in Clarke’s shoulder and Clarke did everything she could not to cry herself. Not just at the nightmare that Bellamy was in the hands of a murderer, but that her girls knew the same fear.

Clarke pulled May into her lap. “You can stop counting, it’s okay, he just said that to scare you, that man is not a good man.”

May shook her head furiously and continued, “89, 90, 91.”   
  
Clarke decided to let her finish.

“Clarke, you found them?” Miriam shouted from the ground.

Clarke nodded. “Find Miller, and Kane if you can, it’s an emergency!”

“99, 100.” May finished and wiped her runny nose on her sleeve. “I’m supposed to tell you something now.”

“What?” Clarke asked, anticipation making it harder to keep herself together.

“You have to go to Mt. Weather, that’s where he took Daddy.”

Clarke pulled May closer to her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried not succumb to the paralyzing fear that was clawing at her insides.

**  
  
**


	9. Chapter 9

 

Clarke looked at Wells and Miller. Wells nodded at her without hesitation. Miller took a minute, then nodded himself.

 

They were halfway to TonDC, which was, thankfully, on the way to Mount Weather. Miriam and Raven were looking after the girls. Kane had gone out to the fields to deal with some pressing matter much earlier in the day and the Chancellor had suggested that Clarke wait for him to come back before setting off to find her husband. Clarke smiled tightly, lied to her mother, grabbed Miller and Wells and hightailed it out the gate before the Chancellor knew what was happening.

 

Clarke would get the last backup she needed when they made it to TonDC and picked up Octavia and Lincoln.

 

She’d just finished making Wells and Miller agree to stay back when Clarke would eventually go in to get Bellamy. Miller was hesitant but after some discussion (more of the “you’re an idiot if you think that’s not my best friend in there too,” and less “what a great plan, awesome. Can’t wait to carry it out.”) he came around.

 

“Are you going to make Octavia stay outside, too?” Miller asked sharply as they came over the hill that put TonDC in view.

 

“No, she has to come with me. But Lincoln needs to stay outside with you two, you’re the plan B,” Clarke said more confidently than she felt.

 

“I told you, we can’t go out today,” Octavia said annoyed, when she met them in the city center.

 

“He took Bellamy.” Clarke was proud of herself, her voice didn’t crack when she said the words but she had to put her hands in her pockets to hide the way they were shaking.

 

Octavia’s face fell for half a second, startled and terrified, but then a hard mask fell into place. Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared. It was jarring for Clarke to witness.

 

Immediately, Octavia started shouting.

 

She ordered some men to follow them but Clarke hesitantly spoke, “No, Octavia, just you and Lincoln. Finn had parameters and a small army definitely doesn’t fit within the parameters.”

 

Octavia stopped and glared at Clarke. Her hands clenched into fists and she looked at Wells, Miller, and then Clarke, seemingly sizing up their chances.

 

“We’re losing time. He took him to Mount Weather,” Clarke managed to get out, this time allowing the panic into her voice to drive home the point. “We need to get going.”

 

Octavia’s jaw clenched and she licked her lips in an impression of Bellamy so good that Clarke had to blink to keep herself from tearing up. She could hold herself together to get him back. She could do this.

 

“Lincoln’s gone, he and Monty are out on an errand. It’s just me, let’s go.”

 

Knowing that Octavia was coming, helped calm Clarke immensely. She was still scared but Octavia knew the terrain, she knew the fastest way to get to Mount Weather. Clarke knew it was a hike there and she planned on talking to Octavia about what she knew about the place. She had to tell them now, she couldn’t be cagey, it was pertinent to their task.

 

The first hour of the walk Clarke explained how Bellamy was taken. Octavia took it mildly. Clarke couldn’t read her well, but she was almost sure that Octavia felt she was somehow responsible.

 

“We didn’t know this would happen,” Clarke floated as both a comfort and an attempt to get Octavia to open a little more.

 

She was going to need Octavia to trust her soon, but it wasn’t time for that conversation yet.

 

Octavia said nothing, so Clarke let it go. Choosing instead to gently ask about what they’d be walking into at Mount Weather.

 

Thankfully, Octavia was willing to finally ditch all the vagueness and explain exactly what she knew about the so called Mountain Men. They used to torment the villages, stealing people away at night, supposedly draining their blood, and turning others into monsters.

 

“They haven’t been seen for years. At least five. Actually, come to think about it, around the time Finn was banished, we hadn’t seen or heard from the Mountain Men in months. They’d stopped taking people and some of the Reapers, the monsters they made of people from the villages, had come back, but like shadows of themselves. Sallow and sick, but not possessed like they’d been before.” Octavia paused checking the trail and taking a fork to the left. “They didn’t speak about what they remembered or what they’d seen. People called it a miracle. But plenty of the village leaders think it’s a trap. They won’t believe we’re free of the mountain and no one is supposed to go there.”

 

“Hope Indra doesn’t get upset over this,” Clarke offered.

 

“I don’t care, we have to get him, even if the Mountain Men are still manning the tunnels, I’d go. You’re not going to turn back after what I told you, are you?” she asked Clarke.

 

It was weighty and even though Clarke was chilled by what Octavia had told her, she didn’t even think before she spoke, “Of course not. I’d walk into hell but this seems far tamer.”

 

Her attempt at a joke did get Octavia to crack a proud smile. “Alright then, I assume you have a plan? Or do I have six hours to figure one out?”

 

“Oh, she’s got a plan,” Wells said.

 

“A downright stupid one, so I’m all ears on what you’ve got, Octavia,” Miller added.

 

Clarke glared at him but now it was a good enough time as any to bring Octavia in on the plan.

 

\--

 

_“Happy birthday, little one,” the doctor said before placing the bundle into Bellamy’s arms._

 

_He wasn’t sure what he expected with a delivery different from his mother delivering his sister in their apartment all those years ago. And he worried in the last few weeks that the doctor placing his own daughter in his arms might trigger emotions about his dead sister and dead mother, but he just smiled. Wait. His sister was alive. He knew that._

 

_The baby’s squishy face and the tuft of black hair on her head had Bellamy smiling in relief. Her brown eyes and soft skin, 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a strong grasp on his finger. Bellamy continued to catalog all the parts of her that made him feel such heart clenching joy._

 

_“Scored a 10 on her APGAR,” a doctor said from beside him._

 

_She put her face up close to May, nuzzling her nose against the baby’s cheek. It should have been strange. This isn’t what happened. But it wasn’t upsetting at all. Bellamy only felt his heart clench even more._

 

_“She’s brilliant right out of the gate,” Bellamy said to the doctor with a protruding belly._

 

_That was wrong too. She shouldn’t have been pregnant when May was born. But he didn’t care._

 

_“Takes after her father, huh?” Clarke asked._

 

_And it was Clarke. He knew now, the haze clearing. It was on the tip of his tongue to say she didn’t belong in this memory. But Bellamy was relieved to see her. Comforted. Content._

 

_He reached out with his free hand and felt her stomach._

 

_“You should really ask before you do that, even if we are married,” Clarke said with a mock offended look._

 

_Wrong again._

 

_He looked over to the bed and Roma wasn’t there. But he was distracted by the thumping of Cora from inside Clarke. He laughed._

 

_“Kicking the shit out of me is pretty rude, don’t you think?” Clarke made a face before pushing her own hand close to his on her belly._

 

_“Like mother, like daughter,” he said with a wicked grin._

 

_Clarke rolled her eyes but then her face changed. She sighed and shook her head slowly._

 

_“Not too much longer,” Clarke whispered before kissing him._

 

_When she pulled back, she took the bundle that was tiny, newborn May. Bellamy added it to the running list of things wrong. They shouldn’t leave him. He needed them._

 

_“Come back!” he shouted as pregnant Clarke walked backwards with May. He saw her crying and tried to run towards her but he couldn’t make his feet move._

 

_“Just a little more, just a little more, Bellamy,” she whispered but her words were lost in the sound of running water filling the room. It wasn’t long before he was gasping for breath trying to keep his head above the gallons of water all around him._

 

“I thought you’d never wake up,” the icy voice of Finn bounced against the damp walls of the room Bellamy woke in.

 

Bellamy was grateful that it wasn’t very bright in the room because he could feel a headache the size of an asteroid forming behind his eyes. Beyond the low lighting, he noticed the walls were made of stone, the room was small, and the door was wide open. He tried to lean toward it and realized then that he was shackled to the wall. His arms and his legs were both restrained.

 

“I didn’t know you tied people up before you slit their throats,” Bellamy said dryly, but his voice was raw and he was sure any sharpness was lost.

 

Finn stood against the opposite wall, arms folded across his chest, nonplussed.

 

“Three buckets of water I threw at you,” he said. “Good thing the water pressure in this place is reasonable. Sure beats the pressure from the Ark.”

 

“You live in a place with running water? Why are you mad they banished you from TonDC? That place certainly doesn't have indoor plumbing.” Bellamy felt his voice working back to where it should be so he focused on that instead of the way the shackles were rubbing against his wrists.

 

Finn scrunched up his face.

 

“What is this place?” Bellamy couldn’t help but ask.

 

“Welcome to the government bunker known as Mount Weather, come for the food and art, stay because I’m going to kill you.”

 

“There’s just a lot wrong with you, man, I don’t even know how to respond to shit like that.” Bellamy let out a deep breath.

 

He’d only been in a room with Finn Collins for a few conscious minutes but he was ready to welcome death at this point. How did Raven date this dude for so long? What a bag of dicks.

 

“Weren’t there a lot of people here? Mountain Men? You kill them too?” Bellamy asked figuring if he had to listen to this blowhard talk, at least he should get some information out of him.

 

“That sounds fun,” Finn said with a wistful look. “But by the time I got here they were all dead, except one woman.”

 

“Did you kill her?”

 

“You’re kind of fixated on all the people I’ve killed. Were you hoping I’d have a list? A chart? A bunch of creepy trophies like teeth or fingers or something?” Finn asked.

 

He was so placid about it all which really added to the chill in the room. Bellamy could smart off but this man had killed too many people and had no remorse about it. He shifted gears, skipping the idea of getting information out of Finn and instead trying to figure a way out of his shackles. He twisted his wrist and pulled gently, they were tight, metal, basically medieval.

 

“It’s pointless, those restraints are solid,” Finn smiled ruefully. “You’ll be here until your hot wife shows up with Raven.”

 

That got Bellamy’s attention. He was both relieved and horrified at the thought that Clarke was on her way.

 

“Why?” was all he could manage to ask.

 

“I assume she wants you, but I’m not going to let that happen of course, I just wanted her to bring Raven.” Finn shrugged. “Masterplan-wise I’m thinking I kill you while she watches, but I’m not sure how that plays out with Raven and I want Raven to stay voluntarily.”

 

“Nothing you do will make Raven want to stay here,” Bellamy said, hoping to keep Finn talking while he gently moved his ankles in the shackles on his legs.

 

“C’mon, I’ve got a whole story worked out, killing people for righteousness and all that jazz,” Finn explained, he looked at something on the table next to him. “Looks like the cavalry is on it’s way! That Clarke is hot and smart, I see she followed the instructions I left with your kids and came with just Raven.”

 

He held up what looked like a tablet computer, not one like they had on the Ark, a much older version. Bellamy’s breath caught when he saw a flash of Clarke’s blonde hair as she walked through the tunnel. He only saw one other person with her, but looking at it, Bellamy knew it wasn’t Raven. He wasn’t going to tell Finn that, though.

 

“Not going to ask if I hurt those sweet little girls of yours?” Finn’s words made Bellamy cringe. “I didn’t. Just scared them a little. I wasn’t going to take them, but watching the way you and your wife flipped your shit over the girls seeing me, that was satisfying so I improvised. I did a lot of improvising today, really. It’s been fun.”

 

A fresh bout of rage started to make it’s way through Bellamy’s chest. He felt it fan out all over his body, but he tried to stamp it down. This man was deranged. He enjoyed hurting people. He needed to get himself free so he could stop him from hurting anyone else. Working against the restraints on his legs he felt one give just a little. He swallowed and glared at Finn.

 

“You said one woman was alive, here in the mountain,  but you didn’t answer me, did you kill her?” Bellamy asked, working the shackle on his foot slowly.

 

“Maya, she was so kind, she helped me, I was hurt, she found me lost in the tunnels. I’d been running from the Reapers. You know what those are?” he asked Bellamy but didn’t give him time to answer. “Monsters, I thought, but she explained later that they were drug addicted people. Driven mad by circumstance and a doctor here in the mountain.”

 

Bellamy continued to work his ankle discreetly while also debating on breaking his wrist to get it free from the metal.

 

“So you didn’t kill her?” he asked, desperate to keep Finn talking.

 

Besides being a horrifying maniac, he clearly loved the sound of his own voice. He’d even started pacing back and forth in front of Bellamy as he retold the story which was good. It kept him distracted. Bellamy idly thought this was definitely some super villain bullshit.

 

“I only killed her when she asked me to,” Finn said as though there was nothing at all strange about the statement. “They’d all been dying slowly. A leak in their seals that they didn’t find until it was far too late. She showed me how to work all the fun features of the mountain and when she’d gotten too sick she asked me to help her end her life. It’s a real treat, a new kind of thrill when someone begs you to kill them. I try to recreate it every now and then for old time’s sake but they never beg like she did.”

 

It wasn’t hard to act sufficiently disgusted by Finn’s words. But when Bellamy felt the metal on his other ankle give just a little he had to hide his excitement at his accomplishment and the sound of the metal clanking against the wall with a cough. Maybe he could get free before Clarke even got in here.

 

\--

 

As Clarke approached Mount Weather, her stomach rolled. Her anxiety and fear were being pushed to the side by her desperate need to get to Bellamy though. She looked over at Octavia, wearing Raven’s signature red jacket, her hair in the high ponytail that Raven had worn for years in exactly the same way. Octavia hadn’t loved the plan. But like Miller, she’d come around. Clarke didn’t want to think about what she’d tell Raven when they got back. But she wasn’t going to tell Raven that she’d hatched this plan as she comforted her crying children.

 

_“One more thing, Mama,” May said using the back of her hand to wipe her face. “He said you have to bring Raven.”_

 

_Cora lifted her face out of Clarke’s neck. “Why does he want Raven?”_

 

_“I don’t know, but I need you both to promise to not tell anyone what he told you.” Clarke swallowed._

 

_“Isn’t that like lying?”_

 

 _“Not for this, May Day. It’s too important. It’s like being a spy. Help me by being a spy and keeping this secret._ ”

 

Raven had asked to go. But after the way Raven had been acting since they’d discovered it was Finn who had been tormenting everyone, killing people, Clarke knew she couldn’t let her come with them. It would be dangerous for Raven. So she just didn’t tell her. She slipped the red jacket into her pack while Raven was distracted and she hoped explaining it to Raven later would be easy. It would be fine, as long as they brought Bellamy back. Any other outcome would make it difficult to explain.

 

Octavia scratched at her head and huffed. “I don’t know how she wears her hair like this all the time.”

 

“I said if you had any better ideas, I’d be open to them,” Clarke said stepping around a large log in the path.

 

Miller and Wells were 30 feet behind them. Octavia had said that this close to the mountain it was a necessity. They didn’t want Finn to know they’d brought help.

 

“Do you think there are Mountain Men still in there, helping Finn?” Clarke asked her.

 

“Hope not,” Octavia replied, stopping as they came an open metal door that looked like it led to a tunnel. “Otherwise this plan is gonna go sideways fast.”

 

Octavia reached for her knife strapped to her leg. It was the only weapon she was going in with. Clarke had a pistol holstered on her back.

 

The plan was pretty loose once they got in the room. She’d hoped that Octavia would listen, but she knew there was no guarantee. Clarke didn’t want to kill Finn. But she wasn’t going to hold it against Octavia if she did. She just wanted her husband back. Unharmed. And Octavia had just gotten her brother back, she was clear that she didn’t intend to lose him again.

 

They turned before walking through the entrance and gave a nod to Wells and Miller waiting in the trees. Clarke had told them that if they were gone longer than half an hour, Miller and Wells should come in after them. They were the backup plan.

 

Once inside the tunnel, they walked slowly, both women with their hands on their weapons, but not drawn. They didn’t know how Finn would act when he found them so they were going for cautious.

 

“Stay behind me,” Clarke warned Octavia. “I’d rather keep up the ruse that you’re Raven as long as possible.”

 

Octavia fell in step behind her and they continued down the tunnel.

 

At the end of the tunnel there was a set of stairs that they took up one floor because the door was open.  
  
“I guess he kept the doors open to lead us in,” Clarke offered.

 

The hallway looked like an old one on the Ark, but instead of metal walls, they were the stone of the mountain. At the end of the hall, Clarke saw light pouring from a room with an open door. She stopped, glancing at Octavia, as she heard muffled voices. Octavia nodded and nudged her on.

 

“Almost,” Octavia whispered. “Just a little further, we can do this.”

 

Clarke took comfort in Octavia’s words, clearly meant to calm her nerves. Octavia had probably done things like this before, but Clarke was still getting used to all the danger that the ground had to offer. She took a deep breath and headed for the door.

 

\--

 

“What made you stop us, the first time?” Bellamy asked.

 

The shackles on his ankles were loose now. One good slam against the rock behind him would break the rusty things. He didn’t want to break his wrist but was currently trying to decide which would be better to break, his right arm being free would be ideal but it’d be half useless if he broke that wrist. He couldn’t throw more than one good punch. The second would be weak and painful. Breaking his left wrist would only be useful if he could get his right hand free easily.

 

“I saw the Ark’s dropships come down, I saw you three making that trip to TonDC once a week. Really, I was just testing the boundaries. Ideally I wanted to get into your camp, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to figure out if Raven was there or if there was anything worth stealing if you were suspicious of me.” Finn paused picking up a knife from the table and walking closer to him. “Had to get out when I heard you talking to Clarke about leaving me.”

 

Finn raised the knife to Bellamy’s throat, not touching the blade to his skin yet, but getting close enough that Bellamy leaned his head back so it was against the cold, stone wall. He only needed to break the shackles at his feet. Left or right wrist, didn’t matter which now.

 

“Stop!” Clarke shouted from the door and Bellamy bit the inside of his cheek.

 

He was grateful Clarke was there but still feared how this would turn out. Especially how Finn would react when he realized he’d been duped.

 

Finn didn’t stop, only turned his face towards Clarke, the knife hovering exactly where it had been.

 

“Welcome to the castle, Princess,” Finn said melodically.

 

Bellamy saw the way Clarke stood straight, her posture rigid and her hands out in front of her, up, demanding Finn to stop but also showing she was unarmed.

 

“Where’s Raven,” Finn asked and Bellamy saw Clarke falter just barely.

 

He hoped that Finn didn’t notice, but the knife pressed into his skin and Bellamy knew that was too much to ask.

 

Octavia stepped out from behind Clarke and Finn’s blade pushed in closer. Bellamy winced as he felt the knife breaking skin, he didn’t care what Clarke and Octavia were doing, he didn’t have time. He slammed his legs backward against the wall once, twice, then three times. The metal broke and his legs were free but it didn’t matter because he jumped as a shot rang out and a knife wedged into Finn’s own neck.

 

Bellamy swallowed as he watched Finn fall to the ground twitching. He turned quickly to see Octavia running for him and Clarke standing in the doorway, still holding the gun, he could see her hands shaking.

 

“Clarke, it’s okay,” he tried to comfort her as Octavia hugged him tightly. “Thanks,” he said to Octavia.

 

“No problem, big brother, just try not to make getting kidnapped a habit,” she said pulling back from the hug. “There’s not anyone else we need to look out for in this place, right?”

 

He shook his head, “No. I think the keys are in his pocket. At least I hope they are. My plan involved breaking my wrist to get out of these.” He lifted his hand to illustrate.

 

“Clarke’s plan was bad, but not that bad. Then again, I don’t think she anticipated it being that quick either.”

 

Bellamy looked over Octavia to see Clarke again. At least she wasn’t still holding the gun. Her whole body seemed deflated, no longer rigid.

 

“Hey,” Bellamy said desperate to feel her to make sure she was real. The dream he’d had earlier flooding his senses. “It’s over now, the two of you took care of that.”

 

Clarke nodded, seeming to snap out of it. She rushed him and he finally sighed with relief as she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder as best she could despite the fact that he was still halfway chained to a wall.

 

“Let’s never repeat that,” she said against his skin.

 

“I’m totally fine with that idea.” He wished he could put his arms around her now, but settled for nuzzling her hair.

 

“Found it!” Octavia stood up waving a key in the air.

 

Clarke backed off so Octavia could unlock the shackles and they both helped Bellamy down. His legs felt like jelly from being hung up all day so he leaned on Clarke with his arm around her shoulder, she put her arm around his back.

 

“Tell me you didn’t come by yourself, dressing up Octavia as Raven was brilliant but no back up?”

 

“We’re here, you whiner,” Wells said as he entered the room.

 

“What the fuck is this place?” Miller asked.

 

“You weren’t supposed to come in yet,” Clarke said but there wasn't any irritation in her words.

 

“We heard a shot, that seemed like a good cue for us to come in,” Wells argued. “And look, you wanna drag his lazy ass home like that?”  
  
“He’s fucking heavy, I’m down with you carrying him home like that,” Miller said with a shrug but Bellamy saw Miller smile with relief.

 

“You missed me,” Bellamy said knocking Miller on the back of his head.

 

“ _I_ missed you,” Clarke said before she turned her face so she could kiss him.

  
He didn’t give two shits that there were people watching. Bellamy had been kidnapped and tied to a wall for the better part of a day. He was gonna kiss his wife like she was the best thing on this godforsaken planet.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! It is finished!
> 
> I’m sorry it took me a while to wrap up this last bit. At first I was feeling sappy. I really like this little universe and I didn’t want it to be over. Then you know like real life things happened and I got all mad that this wasn’t done and I spent days just staring at it, hating it. Now that that’s over though, I’m back to being sappy. 
> 
> Thanks to those of you who have stuck around this long with this series! I can’t believe anyone cared that much and I’m thrilled. I feel so loved that you shared this story, liked it, commented on it, sent me asks. It’s been a lovely ride. 
> 
> Shout out to my eternal cheerleaders. All of you. You know who you are and you’re all the bestest in the entire world. I love you a ton. 
> 
> ANYWAY, enough with the sap! On to the treehouses! (THERE WAS A PLAY ON WORDS THERE WITH SAP. AND TREEHOUSES. GET IT????)

“That’s about as good as it’s going to get,” Clarke said, stepping back to examine the room. 

Today they were showing the treehouses to the council. Everything needed to look perfect to convince the rest of the council that this was a worthwhile venture.

“No, we can make it better!” Octavia said as she leaned against the frame of the front door. 

“What’d ya bring me, O?” Bellamy said walking toward the door, happy to see his sister. 

She hadn’t been by since they’d brought him back from Mount Weather and he felt like he hadn’t really thanked her enough for helping Clarke and Miller and Wells bring him home. 

Octavia flung her arm wide outside to reveal a sofa made from a wood frame and some cushions covered with bright fabric. 

He heard Clarke snort from behind him. Bellamy frowned. 

“Is that a couch?” he asked.

“Yes! Lincoln and I made it for you. We never had one growing up and I love the one we have in our house, so we wanted to give you one!” Octavia was excited, her smile was wide but as Bellamy stared at the couch, her smile faltered. “Is something wrong?”

“He hates couches,” Clarke said, her mouth covered as she obviously tried not to laugh. 

“I don’t hate couches,” he snapped at her, then turned to Octavia. “But I didn’t know you were a couch person,  _ we _ weren’t couch people. Couches aren’t important.”

“Oh hush, your sister did something nice for you, don’t be an ass,” Clarke said. 

Bellamy cleared his throat and restarted, “Thank you for the couch.” 

Octavia beamed.

“Thank god, since we already hauled it up the stairs,” Lincoln muttered. 

Bellamy lifted one side of the couch and Lincoln lifted the other and they started to move it towards the door.

Raven’s door opened down the walkway and a woman waved as she exited the cabin. Raven came out, her hair disheveled and her shirt was askew. She looked at them carrying the couch and turned right back around and went into her house. 

“Raven, it’s great that you’re getting some but the rest of the council is going to be here in 20 minutes so make your bed,” he shouted at her as he continued to maneuver the couch into the living room.

“Fuck you, Blake,” they could hear Raven shout from her house. 

“Can you go talk to Raven?” he asked Clarke. 

“Raven is fine, her house is fine,” Clarke said throwing a blanket over the newly placed couch. “Everything is fine. Stop freaking out. This is going to go well. The council is going to love the treehouses and they’re going to approve more.”

“I hope they approve more. Gena over there was really impressed with my excellent designs,” Raven added as she came into the house. 

“Yeah, it was your designs that impressed her,” Clarke said with a scoff.

“Don’t be jealous, Princess, you took up with this guy, what’s a hot girl like me to do?” Raven teased. 

“Pine, forever,” Clarke said with a laugh. 

“Knock, knock,” Sinclair said as he entered. 

“Shit, you’re all early. Awesome,” Bellamy said, feeling panicked. 

He didn’t want them to tear apart this idea. He’d grown so attached to the treehouses and the idea had sprung into these amazing homes that surpassed his initial vision. Bellamy wanted the whole community to have this option. It was worth it. Raven had come up with far better ideas for these homes than she had for any cabins on the ground. 

The Chancellor walked in behind Sinclair, her look condescending and unimpressed. He swore her nose was actually in the air. She did not like the idea. But the rest of the council filed in behind her and they were all cooing. 

“What’s in here?” a councilmember from the old Section 10 asked as he opened the door under the stairs. He gasped. “Is this a toilet? Does it work?”

“The waste slides into a septic tank at the base of the tree, thanks, gravity! It will have to be emptied pretty often, but it works,” Raven explained. “All three homes have a commode like that.”

More oohs and ahhs from the council members as they toured the home. Except from Abby. She was disinterested. 

By the time they were walking through Wells and Miriam’s house the Chancellor had taken to stomping around the homes. 

“Are you sure they won’t just fall out of the trees?” she finally asked Raven. 

“Each tree has several joists in it. Each joist has support beams. I’ve taken care to allow room for the trees to grow and the homes will sway with wind. That’s a good thing. That way they won’t break. The construction is flawless and my math is impeccable,” Raven said, irritated at the way she was being patronized. “The houses will stay in these trees for at least 50 years.”

Abby’s face finally changed. She raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Why just 50 years?”

“For fuck’s sake, Mom,” Clarke cut in. “You wouldn’t ask about a cabin on the ground standing more than 50 years. Admit that they’re worth it. This was a good idea.” 

“We’ll put it to a vote at the meeting,” the Chancellor said glaring at Clarke. 

“We could just vote now,” Bellamy offered, seeing all the other council members enthusiastic about the project buoying his confidence.

Abby looked horrified but every other member nodded animatedly. 

“All in favor,” Wells asked before Abby could stop them. 

Every council member, even Sinclair, raised their hands quickly. 

“Looks like we’re going to be the Sky People in the trees.” Bellamy held up his hand for a high five to Clarke.

She obliged as the rest of the council chattered excitedly about the new plan to get everyone in treehouses. 

 

\--

 

Clarke sat up against the headboard of their new bed (covered in their purple sheets) as Bellamy dozed beside her. She was reading a book Lincoln had brought her about medicinal plants and absently stroking Bellamy’s hair. 

She was content. 

The girls were difficult to get to bed these last few nights because they’d grown used to sleeping all in one spot with Clarke and Bellamy in their tent. Being in their new room scared them. But instead of a bunk bed, Raven had designed a loft and they’d laid out one large mattress there and both girls finally fell asleep holding each other’s hands. 

Bellamy stirred and rolled over, he threw an arm over her thighs and hugged closer to them, burying his face in her side just above her waist. It was awkward and she laughed at him when she realized he was waking up. His hand drifted over her skin to her inner thigh and his fingers slid up and down her thigh. 

“There’s no way you’re doing that in your sleep,” she said, elbowing the side of his head. 

He groaned in protest but his fingers moved closer to the seam of her panties. She felt him smile against her side. Bellamy continued his path up and down her leg, inching closer to the sweet spot, then backing off, Clarke kept reading, pretending she didn’t notice his hand. 

“I had this dream,” he said finally, his hand still tracing its path. 

“Just now?” she asked, still half reading about lemon balm and how to use it to ease headaches.

“No, the other night, well, day,” he said hesitantly. 

Clarke understood now. He dreamed when he was knocked out and hauled off by Finn.

“What did you dream about?” she asked moving her hand to his hair, hoping her touch would ground him in what she worried might be a heavy conversation. 

He hadn’t said much beyond the basic rundown of what had happened while Finn had him. She didn’t mind. She only hoped that if he needed to talk about it, he would. 

“It was when May was born. I was in medical, back on the Ark, but you were there,” he started.

“I remember when she was born,” Clarke admitted with a soft smile. 

“Because you had a crush on me,” Bellamy replied playfully. 

“I never should have fessed up to that, you always tease me about it,” she whined.

He squeezed her thigh and laughed. 

“I’m irresistible and that other guy was boring, of course you remembered,” he said while Clarke rolled her eyes. “But you were there and you were pregnant, and I knew you were pregnant with Cora.”    
  
“Was my face fat? My face got so fat when I was pregnant,” Clarke said, putting her book down then rubbing her cheek. 

“You were beautiful, I didn’t want to wake up,” Bellamy said honestly, his hand back to stroking the smooth skin of her inner thigh. “I would have happily been in that dream, holding May, so tiny, talking to you, it felt right.” 

Clarke took a deep breath, waiting for him to say more, wondering if that was all he wanted to say. Remembering the months she carried Cora, she moved her hand to feel the few stretch marks that marred her stomach. Bellamy noticed the action because he moved his hand to cover hers.

“Totally and completely up to you, your body and all that stuff, but what if we talked about the idea of having a baby?”

He said it so quickly it took her brain a minute to catch up. She felt him tense the longer she went without saying anything. 

“I’m open to discussing it,” she said, smiling when he instantly relaxed. “Did you hear the thing about my face getting fat? That’s a thing that happens to me. Or it did last time.”

“I like your face, you’re just telling me there’d be a little more of it, sounds great,” he said smoothly. “My worry was more about the part where the kids we have are walking and talking and using the toilet without help.”

“Yeah, going back to cleaning up shit isn’t fun.” Clarke had a flash of Cora when she was six weeks old giving her a gassy smile. “But I counter with babies  _ smell good _ .”

“They cry a lot,” Bellamy reminded her. 

“Who’s talking who into this?” she asked with a laugh.

“It’s good for the population probably. Every life down here matters and that kind of inspirational bullshit,” Bellamy said. “But also there might be a phase where the kid mispronounces things with an ‘L’ sound with a ‘W’ sound and that’s just really fucking adorable.”

“Valid point.” Clarke held up a finger to show her agreement. “It would piss my mom off.”

“People should not reproduce based on who it would piss off,” Bellamy said seriously but paused trying to control his grin. “Unless it’s the Chancellor.” 

“You can’t even keep a straight face saying that,” Clarke said.

Bellamy sat up. “Really though, is it selfish to want to actually do all the baby stuff with you? Because I want to. If you don’t want to, I get it. But I want to. With you. Specifically with you.” 

Clarke tilted her head and put a finger thoughtfully on her chin. “So what you’re saying is you want to have a baby with me? Not someone else? Nice to know I’m the front runner,” she teased and Bellamy rolled his eyes.   
  
“There was a list of candidates, but I narrowed it down,” he replied easily. 

“I didn’t really have a choice last time,” she said changing her tone. “Is this what it feels like to have a choice?”

“It’s weird, right?” Bellamy sighed. 

“Do you think the girls would resent it? Will they think we’re trying to replace them?” she asked. His brow furrowed and she could tell he was really considering the question so she went on, “I read a book once about sibling dynamics and apparently that’s a thing.”    
  
Now Bellamy shook his head. “When you put it like that I’m reminded that our general life experience is pretty fucking weird. You read that in a book?” 

“Well, I didn’t have a siblings,” she snapped. 

The stark realization that life was so different now was clear. They were so much better off on the ground. Clarke missed electricity and was bugging Raven daily about running water becoming a reality but these huge choices that they now got to make were worth it all. 

“Sorry,” Bellamy said putting an arm around her, pulling her closer, and kissing her head. 

She sat quietly for a moment, tucked into his side, thinking about what she wanted. Clarke loved her girls. They were smart and funny but also exhausting. Though being on the ground was such a blessing. They ran and played outside, they were safe down here, even after the recent events, she felt like they were protected. The settlement was turning out to be a good place for them to grow up. A baby born on the ground would be a completely different experience. But one she was steadily considering. If she were honest with herself, she’d been considering it since her mother had dropped the question on her months ago. 

“It will probably make the Chancellor furious,” Clarke said, pulling back to look at Bellamy. “So we should totally do it.” 

“To make your mom mad,” Bellamy said. “Right?”

“And because I want to have a baby with you.” She took his face in her hands and kissed him softly.    
  
“Those are two really good reasons,” he said, guiding her to her back on the bed. “We should get right to work.”    
  
He started to kiss along her jaw as he positioned himself over her. She giggled.

“The implant can’t be removed until tomorrow at the earliest, but I guess we could practice, you know, for the real thing?” Clarke’s hands roamed along his sides. 

“You think we’re not good enough at it?” Bellamy asked with a serious look. 

“We’re good at it, but practice makes perfect,” she said, reaching around his neck and pulling his lips to hers. 

“Did that sound better in your head?” he asked when she moved her lips to kiss the side of his face and down his neck.

“Shut up,” she said. “You want to get laid or what?”

Bellamy started to respond but was cut off. 

“I have to pee,” a small voice squeaked from the doorway. 

Both Clarke and Bellamy sighed disappointed. 

“There’s a toilet downstairs, remember? You used it before you went to bed three hours ago?” Clarke leaned to the side so she could see Cora around Bellamy.

“But it’s dark down there,” she whined. 

Bellamy rested his forehead against her boobs and snorted. “I got it,” he told Clarke as he got up from bed and took Cora by the hand. “Let’s go downstairs together so you won’t be scared. But tomorrow you should thank Raven that you don’t have to go outside to pee.” 

“I will,” Clarke heard Cora say as she walked down the stairs with Bellamy. 

 

\-----

 

_ Two Years Later _

 

A knock at the door had Bellamy stumbling to the door quickly. The knocking kept getting louder and louder and he had to stop it. 

“You could've just come in, Oaks might've been napping, you wake up a sleeping baby around here and the punishment is septic tank emptying,” Bellamy growled at Miller as though Miller didn’t know. Miller definitely knew. 

“I woke up a grumpy dad, not a baby,” Miller said smartly. “Where are the girls?”

“I don’t know.”    
  
“Three’s too many if you lost two of them, man.” Miller gave him a look. 

Bellamy scrubbed his face. “They’re around. Ish. Somewhere.” 

“They went to the playground, what's up?” Clarke asked coming down the stairs and putting chubby Oaks on the floor in a sitting position.   
  
The baby reached for a block and promptly started to gnaw on it. Bellamy gave his son a nod. 

“Monty’s moving in today,” Miller explained as he threw out an arm to point to his own treehouse, across the way from theirs. 

It was covered in hundreds of paper hearts. Some colored, some painted pinks and reds. Miller then held up several in his hand, fanning them out like a deck of cards. Bellamy tried not to laugh when he saw the hearts all had “M + M” on them. 

“You’re the one who gave them too much candy. You spoiled them so this is really payback,” Bellamy said, halfway laughing, trying to keep himself from dissolving into a full on belly laugh. 

He looked to Clarke who was biting her lip and he knew she too was trying not to laugh. Miller though, was peeved. 

“Tell Cora and May to take them down!” he demanded. 

“Monty is going to think it’s cute!” Clarke offered. 

“ _ I _ don’t think it’s cute,” Miller said, mimicking her tone. 

There was a thud and all three of them looked to the spot where Oaks had been sitting to see he wasn’t there. Bellamy exchanged a panicked look with Clarke and then something worse happened. There was no crying, which he’d been waiting for, instead, the baby came crawling at them at top speed. (Which for a baby is not that fast, but it was still disconcerting.) He’d covered the seven feet from his spot by the couch to the front door in 10 seconds. 

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” Bellamy said. 

“It’s fine, it’s going to be alright,” Clarke said, trying to calm him but also sounding a little shocked herself. 

Bellamy bent over and picked up Oaks before he started to climb out the door. 

“He’s crawling!” Miller said impressed. “He wasn’t doing that yesterday!” 

Miller’s tough exterior was just as susceptible to cute children as Raven’s was to clean, shiny engines. His irritation over the heart attack on his treehouse was forgotten. He reached for Oaks hand. 

“High five, bro!” 

“Don’t encourage him, this isn’t a good thing,” Bellamy said, turning the baby away before the high five could be completed. 

“Why?” Miller asked confused. 

“Because when babies can move, everyone is fucked. You can’t just put them down and expect them to be there when you turn around,” Clarke explained. 

“And we live in the goddamn trees. This place is not baby proof,” Bellamy added. 

“They were your idea,” Miller said. “The treehouses were your idea.” 

“It was a terrible idea.” Bellamy poked his head out the door and shouted, “Raven, hey Raven? We need to check all the slats on the walkway. Oaks is going to fall to his death!” 

“He’s not,” Clarke said, trying to be the voice of reason but Bellamy shook his head. 

“He’s totally going to.” 

“He was not like this on the Ark,” Miller said to Clarke. 

Bellamy gave Miller a look.

“Raven?” he shouted louder this time. 

“God, Blake, your kid is fine!” Raven shouted from her window.

“This is worse than when you went into labor,” Miller said to Clarke. 

“I know.” She nodded. “We’re definitely not having another kid. This one has made him far too…” Clarke hesitated and then just shrugged. “Too much of this.” 

“Clarke, tell your husband to chill or he’ll break his arm again,” Raven yelled out her window. 

“Fuck you, Raven!” Bellamy leaned out of the door again so she heard him. “If you hadn’t made me help with the windows, I wouldn’t have fallen out of the tree!” 

“Oh my gosh,” Clarke said pulling on Bellamy’s arm to get him back in the house. “Miller, I’ll find the girls, they’ll take the hearts down.” 

“Thank you,” he said walking back towards his house.

“We gotta figure out a way to block off the stairs in here so he doesn’t crack his head open,” Bellamy said as he turned to Clarke. 

“We’ll figure it out,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his forehead. “You check all the places Oaks could die now that he’s mobile, I’ll go get the girls.”  

Bellamy nodded. He was frantic about all the babyproofing they needed to do but Clarke’s touch had calmed him.

“We’re done having kids for sure now.”

“For sure,” Clarke agreed, reaching for Oaks. Bellamy kissed the top of the baby’s head and handed him over. She rested him on her hip. 

“You’re so hot with a baby, but yeah, done,” Bellamy said making Clarke laugh. 

“Done,” she threw over her shoulder as she walked out the door to find the girls at the playground. 

“Yeah, done,” Bellamy whispered to himself, content. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading! I will not be writing anymore 23k+ adventures with this little universe, but I'll probably write little mini ficlets here and there. (Molly has already asked for Bellamy breaking his arm as a little vignette.) I'm on tumblr at cupcakesandtv.


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